Definitely Different
by Kirorokat
Summary: Rai Arakaki is the newest girl in town and is attending Deimon High. Will she manage to establish any positive relationships, or will there be a repeat of her painful past? HirumaxOC later
1. Introduction

**Character Introduction**

**Name: **Rai Arakaki **Hair color:**Black with a blue streak **Eye color: **silverish grey **Height: **5'6" (167 cm) **Weight: **130 lbs (54 kg

**Age: **16

**Personality: **Generally quiet and fairly withdrawn, you've never had a friend in your life. Not that you were ever really interested. You're intelligent, but not some super-genius or anything, and somewhat cunning if needed to be. Although you're quiet and usually found away from people, you are not cold-hearted enough to let innocent people be mistreated, especially children. You're polite toward people you feel deserve it, and anyone you feel is low enough to not deserve it should expect a sharp tongue from you. You're also a good liar.

**Background: **Your parents had never wanted children, so you were an unpleasant surprise when they found out they had concieved one. Hoever, at least they hadn't dumped you at an orphanage or on the street somewhere, so you guessed you couldn't complain much, and they fed you twice a day (lunch at school). At nine years old your father left and your mother became a violent, worthless drunk. You left the house when you were twelve and did odd jobs for people to support yourself, tlling them you were saving up for someone's birthday present if they ever asked.

**Current: **You now live in your ow apartment with your only friend, Kyuri, a grey cat. (Your jobs will be revealed later on)


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

You passed your most recent paycheck and a deposit slip through the small opening in the glass seperated you from a woman named Tsuri, according to her name tag.

Tsuri glanced at the check, then the slip, noticed a difference and asked, "Would you like to cash the rest?"

"Yes please," you replied shyly.

"One moment please."

Shortly afterward you recieved an envelope, and, after making sure all the money was there, turned to leave.

"Have a nice day!" the woman called.

"Thank you, you too," you replied, and began walkiing home.

On the way home you stopped by the market and the store to do a bit of grocery shopping. Unfortunately, it was a weekend, so the lines were wretched. Having only three cashiers working at the store didn't really help the situation, either. After about fifteen minutes of just waiting in line after you'd finished shopping, you were finally out of the store.

[Finally,] you thought, exasperated, [_Now _I can go home.]

You were thankfull for all the extra training you put in during the summer during the twenty minute walk back to your apartment. You were carrying five bags of groceries, and they weren't exactly what you'd call 'light'.

"Kyuri," you called softly, opening the door and setting the groceries on the counter.

"MROW!" came his desperate reply.

[-_- ' Jesus Christ, not again!]

Walking to the bathroom door, Kyuri let out another caterwaul just as you put your hand on the doorknob. As soon as the door opened, the formerly imprisoned cat flew ito your arms and began purring loudly.

"Yes, I'm home. And I didn't get lost this time!" You had just moved to the city a few days ago, so you were just beginning to get your bearings. "And how long is it going to take before you learn how to not shut yourself in the bathroom?" you asked. You swore Kyuri had to be the dumbest cat on the planet. He'd been shutting himself in the bathroom since he was small, and even managed to lock the door several times in his attempts to turn the knob himself. He was also a hopeless klutz with a short attention span.

He batted at a stray lock of your bangs playfully. Stroking his back, you made your way back to the kitchen. After feeding the four-legged urchin* and putting away the groceries, you made something to eat for yourself, which consisted of udon and a glass of milk. Noticing that there was still time before it closed, you got changed and headed to the gym, Kyuri perched on your shoulders.

Once you reached your destination, Kyuri hopped down from his perch and trotted next to you as you opened the door.

"Ah, Arakaki-san! Welcome back!" You looked to your left, in the direction of the greeting, and saw a woman in about her late thirties, standing behind the receptionist's counter. She had light brown hair, which was always in a bun, and brown eyes, and it was easy to see she used her employment at the gym to her advantage. "I'm surprised you'd spend a day out of the last weekend of summer vacation here."

"How crowded is it today?" you asked, just loud enough for her to hear. Kyuri lept up onto the counter; he knew a cat-lover when he saw one.

"Not too bad today," she replid, stroking him.

You walked past the desk and Kyuri caught up a few moments later.

"Little suck-up," you teased as he rubbed against your ankles. Looking around, the least crowded area was where the treadmills were. You'd been hoping for one of the muscle-building machines, or something of the like; they were more practical to the reason why you trained so much in the first place.

[Well, working up some stamina as a warm-up will be fine,] you concluded. You'd take the next machine that came up. Stepping onto the treadmill, you looked down at the control pad, trying to figure out how to change the settings. After a few minutes of tinkering with the thing, you finally got the machine to do what you wanted it to. Once you got started, you forcused on being inconspicuos and unobstructive; which, you'd long since discovered, worked very well for you.

Finally, after a little over five minutes, one of the bench presses opened up. Kyuri skittered over to it and reserved your spot as you struggled to move forward enough on the treadmill to reach the off switch. Once that was accomplished, you got a long drink of water and walked over to adjust the weights.

"Shut up," you said to Kyuri, who had a chesire grin on his face. It was obvious that he found your struggle on the treadmill amusing. Kyuri replied with a meow as he jumped off the contraption. You knew you were supposed to have a partner when working on the bench press; it was common safety knowledge for anyone who seriously went to the gym. However, due to the fact that you were generally unnoticed everwhere (and new to town) you were too shy to ask anyone. Not to mention that social situations with people you didn't know made you extremely uncomfortable.

After five or six presses, the door opened at the entrance, and three boys about your age walked in, two of which seemed to be arguing about something. The leader of the trio seemed annoyed and kept telling his two friends to "shut the hell up". You did your best to ignore their bickering and concentrate on your training, which was proving to be easier said than done.

"Ah forget it!" the leader said vehemently, walking away from his friends. You saw that he was a blonde, short hair, and a bit taller than you, with a scar shaped like the katakana "me"** on his cheek. He walked over to the wall with the hand weights and grabbed a pair.

Noticing his absence, the other boys stopped arguing and followed after him. One was wearing a pair of fushia shades; he was the tallest of the bucnh and had the wildest hair, as well as some sort of book in his hand. The third high schooler had the darkest complexion, brown hair, and a bit of an odd-sounding voice.

[At least they finally shut up,] you thought. By now you had reached 12 reps with the weights, and you were starting to get worn out.

"Meow?"

You looked over just in time to see Kyuri jump up, and land on your stomach.

"Kyuri!" you sputtered as his claws stabbed your gut. Instinctively, you released your right hand from the bar to push him off; and stared wide-eyed at the result of your mistake.

* Not the urchin as in the spikey sea creature, but as in the mischevous youngster

**Katakana is a set of 48 characters in the Japanese alphabet, and me (pronounced meh) is shaped just like the scar on Juumonji's cheek.

Please R&R ^^


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

[Shit!] you thought frantically. It seemes as if everything at that moment was in semi-slow motion, and you clearlysaw the heavily eighted bar falling toward you. From the looks of it, it appeared to be headed roght for your mustered up every ounce of strength you had left from the work-out into the arm that still had a grip on the bar and pushed up on it desperately. The falling weights stopped for just a moment, but it was enough time for you to place your other hand on the bar and place it back on the holder.

"Mrow?" Kyuri chimmed.

"Little bastard," you replied, carefully maneuvering your now limp left arm onto your lap; you'd definately ripped amuscle or two. You sat there with your hand resting lightly on your arm, eyes closed, trying to calm yourself down before you bit someone's head off. With you, the more pain you're in, the angrier you got, and your arm hurt like you were sure you had your temple under control, you stood and began walking toward the gym's exit.

"Huh?!"

"Huuh!?"

"Huuuuuh!?"

You stopped upon hearing this, curiousity getting the best of you, and because you recognized the voices as those of the three guys that came in earlier.

"What the hell?!" exclaimed the guy with the darkest complexion.

"Am...am I reading this right?" the blonde inquired, his eyes fixated on the weights you'd been lifting.

"Th-there's no way," the third murmered, "She's not even that buff!"

At this the trio looked up at you, as if to double-check the validility of the statement. It made you uncomfortable, asalways, being the center of any kind of attention, and after a clueless moment of having no idea what to do, you flashed a fake(but convincing) grin and gave them the peace sign.

They stared at you as if you just grew another nose or something.

Heaving a mental sigh, you turned and left the building. Weird looks and what not were the usual reactions when peoplefound out how strong you were. However, it was a lot better than the reactions you got when they happened to discover theunusual talent you'd been born with.

~Flashback~

As far back as you could remember, you'd been able to sense most people's true nature, no matter how well they hid itfrom others. As a result, others were often cinfused as to why you'd avoid the "nicest" of people. However, it was your other talent that had caused you the most grief. It first came up when you were six, in the middle of class at school. According to what witnesses had told you, you had suddenly froze, and your eyes became distant and glazed. After about ten seconds, you slowly turned your head so that your eyes met those of another classmate's. a girl with bluish-green hair and deep blue eyes.

"Don't let Chiori outside," you said. Later you were told how your voice was as distanf and blank as your expression.

"Wh-wha?" the girl stammered, unnerved.

"Chiori," you said again, "Ice on the road...frost...don't let her out."

Then it was over, and you didn't remember saying a thing. All that could be recalled in your memories was the scene that had played out before you that no one else could see, no one else could hear, and the looks on the faces of your classmates as you snapped back to reality. Two days later, Chiori, the classmates, dog, got hit by a car that had lost control after driving on a patch of black ice on the road. Everyone, being young children and knowing no better, blamed you for the tragedy.

_"Witch-girl."_

_"Freak!"_

Glares full of contempt and distrust. They all thought you had put a curse o something on the poor creature.

~End Flashback~

That had all started ten years ago, and had ended when you'd left your mother's house. You were still working on your self-esteem and self-confidence issues. You were, at the moment, walking down (or up, you couldn't tell) a street that was completely foreign to you. For the fourth time that week, you were completely lost.

[Goddammit,] you cursed, looking around, hoping something at all helpfull. You couldn't find jack, not even a street sign. [Teach you to space off like that while walking around in a new city, dumbass.]

"Kyuri," you said, looking down at the little cat, "When we get home, remind me to get a GPS for my phone."

Kyuri, of course, didn't understand anthing past his name, only that you were annoyed at something. He began rubbing his cheek against your ankle, which meant that he was hungry or wanted attention. At this point, it was probably both. "C'mon,'' you said, motioning with your good hand to your shoulder; an invitation that the feline gladly accepted. You scratched behing his ears as you turned around and began walking in the direction you hoped you'd come from. Checking your watch, you saw that it was already six 'o' clock, which meant that it would be getting dark soon.

[I hope I can at least find a pay phone,] you thought miserable, [Of all the days I forget my stupid cell phone at home, it had to be today.]

~Four hours later~

You were hungry, tired, irritable, hopelessly lost, and extremely agitated at Kyuri, who was making as much a pain-in-the-ass of himself as he could. What was worse, you hadn't seen one single god-damned payphone, and the only street signs you came across were totally unknown to you.

However, the topper on the cake of your misery was that someone had been following you for the past five minutes or so, and it was really starting to bug you.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

You weren't so much frightened by the fact that you were being stalked so much as irritated and nervous.  
You obviously didn't know whether said stalker had a weapon or not, and if it came down to a fight, having  
to protect Kyuri would complicate things, as would your injured arm.

However, you couldn't really sense any danger at the time, so you weren't all too worried about it. None-the-  
less, you decided to make the aquaintance of the mystery person.

"Oi!" you called, "Get your ass ot here where I can see ya; I know you're there!"

[Might as well let 'em know who's boss,] you thought to yourself somewhat smugly, satisfied with the  
authorative and demanding tone you'd managed to pull off.

A few moments later you heard footsteps off to your left, and turned to mett the stranger eye-to-eye. As he  
approached you, you could immediately tell the guy meant no harm at all. His posture and body language as he  
approached was the first indicator of this. He was fidgeting and looking down at his feet as he came closer, and the  
look on his face told you that he was a bit nervous and unsure of himself. He was about a meter's distance away from  
you when he stopped, and it was then that you noticed just how friggin' huge he was! He had a somewhat dark  
complexion, small eyes, and brown hair, and looked like he weighed a ton.

However, despite his large size, you sensed that he was actually quite kind and friendly; a gentle giant, so to speak.

"You don't seem to be some one that would fit the criteria of a stalker," you stated, looking up at him.

"Ah! N-no, that's not it at all, honest!" he exclaimed, flustered and waving his hands in front of him.

"Then why, if I may ask, have you been following me for the past five minutes?"

"Um, I was heading home after eating dinner at my relatives' restaurant, and I saw you walking around and you looked  
lost, so I was going to ak if you needed directions," he answered, fidgeting again,"I'm sorry if I startled you or anything!"

"Hmm, I'll forgive you on one condition," you said, your expression serious.

He smiled and nodded, happy that you weren't going to hold a grudge.

"Can I use your cell phone if you have one?"

He handed you his phone and you called a cab to pick you up. Thankfully, it would only take about five minutes or so.

"Thank you," you said to the stranger, returning his phone. "I'm Arakaki Rai," you continued, bowing slightly. Kyuri,  
(who was still perched on your shoulder) stretched out a paw, as if introducing himself as well.

"And this is Kyuri," you added, "the most hopeless cat on the planet."

"I'm Ryoukan Kurita," the stranger replied, "Pleased to meet you."

You thanked him again for his help and with that turned and began walking toward the spot where the taxi driver  
would pick you up.

~45 minutes later~  
After feeding Kyuri, you took a shower, made yourself some chicken broth, and plopped down on the coach with a book.  
Kyuri hopped up onto your lap after he was done eating and fell asleep within a few minutes.

~Next morning~  
You woke up at about 9:30 with Kyurirubbing his cheeks against your face, meowing loudly.

"Alright alright, I'm up now!" you half-exclaimed groggily, stretching. You could tell the cat really wanted his breakfast.

After feeding your four-legged friend, you got something to at for yourself, which constisted of left-over udon and a glass of  
orange juice. After that, you got ready for the day.

"Alright, Kyuri, don't tear anything up, be good, and for God's sake _try _not to shut yourself up int the bathroom."

With that, you grabbed your cell phone, a print-out map, and your duffel bag and headed out the door, locking it behind you.

You'd been walking ten minutes or so (feeling pretty sure that you weren't lost), when you saw a guy about your age walking  
in front of you, crossing the street ahead. He was a bit on the sort side with brown spikey hair.

"Hey!" you called, speeding up your pace to catch up with him. You figured you'd might as well decrease your chances of getting  
lost as much as possible. "Excuse me!"

He stopped and turned, realizing that you were actually calling him instead of someone else (although there wasn't really  
anyone else around at the moment).

"Me?" he asked tentatively, pointing to himself.

"Yes," you replied, having caught up to him at that point.

"Oh," he said with a shy but friendly smile. Then Then, as if just realizing something important, he added hastily with a  
low bow, "Ah! I'm very sorry about that! I wasn't ignoring you or anything, I just hadn't realized..."

"Oh, don't worry, I didn't think you were ignoring me. I just had a question."

Upon hearing this he was silent, waiting politely.

"Are you by any chance headed in the same direction as Deimon High School?"

"Hn? Yes, actually that's where I'm going. Are you lost?"

"Probably," you replied, scratching the back of your head in embarrassment, "My sense of direction is horrible and my  
computer printerhates me." Upon finishing your sentence you held up the print-out of your would-be map. The boy immediately  
saw the problem; the printer had run out of ink half-way through the picture.

"I- I see," he said, handing the paper back to you as a sweatdrop slid down the side of his head.

"I'm sorry to bother you with this," you started apologetically, "But would you mind if I followed you there? I promise I won't  
be annoying or anything."

Thus came about and continued your journey to Deimon High.

Author's note: Thank you to all the people who sent reviews and added the series to their favorites!


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Please go onto my profile after every update to check for important news and what-not, because that's where it'll be. Which I have posted, so please go read it. And R&R _onegai shimasu!_

~5 minutes later~  
"So you're new to the area?" Sena inquired. You'd learned his name shortly after you started following him.

"Yeah," you replied, "That's why I get lost so much. I'll learn, though." You noticed that Sena was looking  
inquizically at the bag slung over your left shoulder and knew he was probably too shy to voice his curiousity  
about it.

"I've got to work after checking whether or nt I've been admitted to the school," you explained.

'I guess it's not really a lie; I get paid when I do what I'm supposed to and it's a helluva lot of work,' you  
thought.

"Oh," he said, "Is that where you hurt your arm?" he questioned, pointing to your right arm, which was in a  
sling.

"No, I just did something stupid. It's not really that bad, though; just a torn muscle or two."

Shortly after that you arrived at the school.

"Sena!" you heard a girl call, and slid away. From what you'd observed in the past, most girls around your age  
had a whole posse of friends they were always with, and you weren't fond of being introduced to a bunch of people  
at once. That, and said posses tended to be loud and squeally.

Suddenly a sharp itching pain in your eye forced you to stop, and you began gently rubbing it to slide the contact  
back into it's place. Your eye color, obviously, wasn't exactly common, and it often drew attention. So, as far as the  
school was concerned, your eyes were brown.

Locating the bulletin board, you began searching it for your number.

'Oh, c'mon, please let it-ha! There it is!'

You smiled happily, turned, and headed toward the school's main building to buy a uniform.

~15 minutes later~  
You were now in the office, answering questions the woman sitting at the desk in front of you should have already  
known the answers to after she got your number.

"Name?"

"Arakaki, Rai."

"Age?"

"16."

"Thank you. Please wait a moment, your schedules* are printing."

After a minute or so she handed you some papers and said, "Picture day will be during the first week of school; you  
will recieve your student identification cards then. Also," she handed you aother piece of paper, "Here is a list of the  
school's clubs, ir you're interested."

"Thank you," you replied and bowed, then left. Looking at your watch, you saw that you still had some time left before  
you had to leave for training, so you began to explore the campus. At some point you found a nice tree to sit under, and  
as you were relaxing you read through the club list you were given. Of course, you had no intentions what-so-ever of  
joining one, but it was interesting to see what there was nonetheless.

Once ou finished, you took out the registration forms that were due the next day and set to work.

~10 minutes later~  
"Student signature." You signed your name, then looked down at the last line of the paper.

"Parent signature."

You signed the fake name that you'd been using for years and put the paperwork away.

'Finally time to go,' you thought to yourself, checking your watch as you stood up. Walking back toward the school entrance,  
you spotted Sena by the registration board, looking like he was waiting for someone.

"Kobayakawa kun!" you called, walking toward him.

Sena's head jerked in the direction in which he'd heard his name, and he gave a friendly smile once he saw it was you.

"Arakaki san!" he greeted you, "How did you do?"

"On the admission? I passed. You?"

"Me, too," he replied, a strange expression crossing his face.

"What's wrong?" you asked. Sena's face looked something like -_- ', but his mouth was slightly agape. {Like the small,  
triangular-shaped mouth one often sees in anime/manga.}

"Ah! It... it's nothing, really," he answered, waving a hand in front of him.

~Sena flashback~  
"Sena!" someone called, and you recognized the voice as Mamori's. "Did you pass?"

"Um," you stammered, looking down, "I don't know yet."

"Well then don't just stand there!" she exclaimed, taking you by the hand and dragging you along, "C'mon!"

A short time later the two of you were standing in front of the "accepted" board, scanning for your number.

"Ah!" Mamori exclaimed, pointing, "There it is!"

You looked and, sure enough, it was there.

"See? I knew you could do it! I'm going to get the uniforms." She then turned and started for the school, leaving you to  
wait near the bulletin board. You looked up at your number again, as if to make sure it was real. Seeing that it was still  
there, you smiled happily.

Suddenly, the next thing you knew, you'd been lifted and thrown into the air.

"Congradulations!" two guys eclaimed, still tossing you, "You made it!"

'People are so friendly here,' you thought to yourself, somewhat in shock.

After a few more tosses they set you down, and one stepped forward. He was thin and tall, with spikey blonde hair, blue-ish  
green eyes, and several ear piercings. He was wearing a red sports uniform with the number 11 on it.

"Good job on passing the exam," he said, "Why don't you call your parents and tell 'em the good news?"

"I don't have a cell phone," you explained, "so..."

"Don't worry about that!" he interrupted, "You can use mine!"

"Thank you!" you said gratefully, and dialed your number.

"Hello?" your mother anwered.

"Hello, Mo-"

At that point the phone was snatched away from you and the two strangers were gone, leaving you there completely and utterly  
confused.  
~End flashback~

~Rai's POV~  
"Um, okay" you replied, "Thank you for the help earlier, by the way."

"Oh, no problem," he replied.

You glanced at your watch again, then looked up apologetically, "I'm sorry to rush off, but I have to be somewhere, so I'll see you later."

"Bye!" he said, waving. You waved back, turned, and headed toward the train station.

~Some time later~  
You were now sitting on the train, watching the scenery fly by. You enjoyed riding the train; it was usually quiet and relaxing, except for  
rush hour. The only downside was how hard it was to keep yourself from falling asleep during the ride. So this time you kept yourself  
occupied by trying to remember everything that was in your kitchen and writting it down so you could check your accuracy later.

_Last nights dirty dishes._

'Oops.' You'd completely forgotten about those.

_Cat food, carrots, left over udon..._


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N **I'm sorry this took so long. And guess what? The first chapter of that Saiyuki series I mentioned ages ago is finished. Also, I thank everyone that has reviewed and given me suggestions, and encourage people to keep doing so!

**Chapter 5**

You awoke with a small start, aware that someone was shaking your shoulder.

"Miss? Miss? Excuse me, but I think this is your stop."

It was the ticketer. You'd fallen asleep on the train often enough for him to recognize you, so he'd made a habit of remembering where your ticket said you were going whenever you were on.

"Huh?" you blurted groggily; you were slow in waking up sometimes.

"This is your stop," he repeated with a friendly grin. The man had a bit of a happy-go-lucky personality.

"Oh - wait what?! Really? Crap!" You gathered up your bag and dashed toward the door. "Thank you!" you called back with a wave, and lept off the train.

'I fell asleep _again!_ I can't believe it, that's so pathetic. And that poor guy has better things to do than making sure I don't over-sleep! What is it about trains that relaxes me so much, anyway?'

~Time lapse~

You got out of the cab you had called and walked a few more blocks to your destination. It was a grey, one-story building in the middle of a warehouse district. The door was made of heavy steel, and the windows were small and set high up so that they were near the ceiling.

When you reached the door you took out your phone and called your coach. Naturally, nobody wanted just anyone walking in and causing disturbances, so there was a trick in getting inside, but it wasn't a password or some secret knock; you have to know your coach's phone number.

"Hello Rai," your coach answered, "You here?"

"Yeah," you replied, and hung up.

About a minute later you heard the steel beam barring the door move, and you let yourself in. Before you could turn around after locking the door again, Coach had already worked himself up into a near panic.

"Rai!" he exclaimed, horrified, "What the hell'd you do to your arm?!"

You couldn't help but grin at the look on his face; he was always such a spazz. (Me: Picture one with a personality similar to Ichigo's father off Bleach.) However, despite his idiosyncracies, he was a ddamn good coach, even though he was completely against you being a fighter.

"It's fine, I just ripped a muscle or two," you replied.

"Well, whatever, we'll just go easy with training today, so no sparring. And you made sure to erase the call, right?" he added, looking at you sternly.

"Yeah, yeah; like I'd forget," you answered. It was a strictly enforced rule that the number of whoever let you in was nowhere on one's phone. This was a precaution so that if someone's phone got into the wrong hands, there wouldn't be any problems. The warehouse was the training place for fighters and fighters in the making like yourself, and it wasn't the legal fighting.

~Time lapse~

You got off the train and began walking home at around 3:30. You figured that, after you got home, you'd go out and buy your school supplies ( you're kind of a last-minute shopper).

"Kyuri?" you called as you entered your apartment. You were pretty sure you knew where he was, but you figured you'd might as well check.

"Mrow!" came his reply.

'Yep,' you concluded, smirking, 'In the bathroom.'

"Alright cat," you said to him, opening the door, "You'll eat lunch, then you're gonna come with me to do some shopping."

You could tell that he obviously wasn't listening as he rubbed against your ankles, purring. You stooped down and scratched his ears, then went into the kitchen to feed yourself and your cat.

As you heated up what was left of the last night's udon, you noticed there was a message on your answering machine.

"_Hello! It's the landlady. I just wanted to let you know that rent's one day overdue, so I thought I'd remind you to please turn it in. Thank you, and have a nice day!"_

BEEEP!

You erased the message as you sat down at the table with your udon and began eating.

Once you finished lunch, you washed the dishes, wrote out a check to turn into the landlady's office, and sealed it in an envelope. After that, you grabbed your school bag ( a white shoulder bag) and headed toward the door.

"C'mon Kyuri," you called, and the feline jumped onto your bag, hitching a ride on that instead of your shoulder.

~Time lapse~

The store wasn't really that busy, much to your relief. Your first "to do" was to get a couple of three ring binders, so you went straight for the school supplies.

Once you were there, you grabbed two small binders, some basic folders, and some paper. You then hit the staionary isle and got pens, mechanical pencils and lead, and the biggest pack of colored sharpies the store had, which was for decorating your bag; hence the reason for said bag being white. That being done, you got all the other basic knick-knacks you figured you'd probably need, like a protractor, calculator, and the like.

You were standing in line to pay for your things, waiting for some lady four people ahead of you to find her damned coupon, when the most interesting event out of your day occured.

"Hold still, Kyuri," you murmered, stroking the antsy little cat and trying to calm him down, "Yeah, I know, it's annoy-"

Your words died in your throat and you froze, feeling a sudden and extreme change in the atmosphere of everyone around you. Everone at or near the front of the store had gone dead-silent, and were backing away from the entrance. The unease and apprehension - even fear- emmiting from the store's customers was almost overwhelming.

'What the hell's going on?!' you thought rapidly, 'Someone just walked in, didn't they? Why is everyone so afraid; do they have a bomb strapped to them or something?'

Kyuri, being an animal, sensed the negative atmosphere as well and became even more restless.

"Please Kyuri, be still!"

"Mrooow," he replied, and you could hear the distress in his voice. The fear from everyone else had made him afraid, too.

"It's okay, little one," you soothedd, giving the cat something of a hug as you stroked his fur.

You saw that whoever it was that could instill such fear in people was apparently walking forward, because there was a gap forming in the small crowd from people moving out of the way.

"Hey, excuse me?" you inquired of the guy in front of you, "Could you please tell me what's going on?"

He looked down at you with a mixture of pity and shock on his face.

"You must be new around here," he said, "If you don't know the guy they call 'The Demon of Deimon High'."


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

'Demon?' you thought, 'Why...?'

_Witch!_

'Why is he called...'

_She's evil, stay away!_

"Why's he called a demon?" you asked the man, no longer looking up but at the ground, causing a shadow to hide your eyes.

_She sent a curse; she killed Chiori!_

'Is this guy, the so-called "demon", being labeled the same way I have been?'

"His Devil's Handbook," the man explained, "It has information on who-knows-how-many people, their darkest and deepest or most embarrassing secrets; he finds them - no problem - and uses them to his advantage. And he's a genius; he knows exactly how to get what he wants, especially with all the guns he carries around! He's a calculating mastermind, none of his plans, no matter how complicated, have ever failed. And," he continued, "His energy itself sends arctic chills through your body. It could freeze your blood solid!"

'Oh, now I see,' you thought, relieved in a way, 'I was wrong.' you were glad for that, because you'd hate for anyone to go through what you used to.

"Hey!"

Your head snapped up and you looked around a bit.

"You're in the way, Fucking Space Cadet."

You turned to look at whoever it was that had spoken so rudely. You could tell immediately that the guy in front of you now was the "demon" everyone was so afraid of.

"Sorry," you mumbled, stepping backward. You then looked around for the man you'd been speaking to, having realized that he'd suddenly disappeared.

'Geez,' you though to yourself, having spotted him, 'The look on his face makes me feel like I've been left for dead in the middle of battle or something.'

~Back at home~

You'd put the school supplies on the table, grabbed one of your many cookbooks, and began looking for dinner.

"Aah!" you sighed after a whiloe, exhasperated and shutting the book, "Whatever!"

You were feeling to lazy at the moment to do much in the way of cooking, so you decided to make the only thing you didn't need a cookbook for: onigiri.

"Hmm," you mumbled, looking up at the rice cooker, which was on top of the cabinets, "This is gonna be a pain."

As you were scrambling onto the counter to reach the cooker (you didn't have any chairs because you ate on the couch at the coffe table) you prayed for two things not to happen: for the rice cooker to fall and hit your face or for you to fall and hit the floor.

~Time lapse~

After you goit the rice to cooking (with no bruises or broken machinery) you set to work organizing your school bag. Once you had finished, you went into the kitchen to feed Kyuri and make the filling for the onigiri, then sat on the couch and waited for the rice. To pass the time you took out a laser pointer and proceeded to flick the light around on the floor for Kyuri to chase

Sometime later the timer finally went off for the rice, so you put the laser on a shelf and went into the kitchen. Kyuri stood, dumbfounded, in the place where he'd last seen the light and frantically searched for it. After a few moments of his fruitless effort, however, he gave up and flopped down on the spot, exhausted.

~Time lapse~

After you finished dinner and washed all the dishes, you went into your rarely used bedroom and dug around for your alarm clock, which took you a good twenty minutes to find. You then went into the living room and plugged the machine into the outlet that was farthest away from the couch, then set the time. The alarm you set for 5:30 instead of 6:30 because you wanted to get to school early enough to make up for the time you'd probably lose wandering the hallways, hopelessly lost.

'Next,' you thought with a yawn, 'Is the shower.'


	8. Chapter 7

~Next Morning~

REEEE! REEEE! REEEE!

"Nnngh..." you mumbled, not even half-awake yet.

REE! REEE! REEE!

"Ngh!"

REEE! REEEE! REEEE! REE!

"Shut _up!_" you exclaimed, throwing your pillow at the alarm clock. After a few more seconds you couldn't bear listening to the blaring noise eminating from the little box and got up to shut it off.

"Hate that thing,"you muttered to yourself as you straightened up and turned toward the kitchen.

~Time lapse~

You made it to school without any problems and were now wondering the halls, hopelessly lost and feeling like a total fool.

'I'm so glad I anticipated this,' you thought miserably. You knew you'd be even happier if you could find the frickin' front office, though (you'd entered the school from a side entrance).

Suddenly you stopped, having reached an intersection in the hallway.

'Okay, I'm looking for F hall. That way is C,' you pointed forward, 'And I just came from A. So I'm probably looking for D; left or right?' After a few moments you found your designated corridor and continued your journey to your classroom, having abandoned your hopes of randomly finding the office.

Some time later, you successfully syumbled across your classroom and, finding it unlocked, let yourself in. You saw immediately that the teacher wasn't there, so you set your bag down and went to the teacher's desk to find your seat.

"Hmmm, where am I? No...no...no, no, no... Ah! Here we go-!" you stopped, noticing that your spot was at the very front of the room, _right _in front of the teacher's desk. "Not gonna happen."

You took a pencil from the desk, erased your name, and replaced it with a Sukamaru Yamada, who was sitting in the corner of the room.

'Okay,' you thought, brushing your palms together as if wiping dirt off of them, 'Now to find the other two most important places in the school; cafeteria and the library.'

~30 minutes later~

A lot of people had shown up by now and, having successfully found the two places you were looking for, you decided to get to class before the room got crowded.

~Lunch period~

So far, your day was pretty average. First period, you had history with a teacher that _really _needed to switch to decaf or something. Second period was math with a female teacher that looked like she'd rather be anywhere else on the planet except where she was then, and then there was english, the teacher of which was the only one you actually liked so far.

After getting lunch from the cafeteria, you went outside and sat under a tree to eat in peace and quiet.

A/N - First, I'm really sorry it took so long. I didn't plan on that. . Also, if the layout of the school is off from what it's supposed to be, sorry about that, too. And Sakumaru Yamada was something that I just made up, so it's probably meaningless.


	9. Chapter 8

~Hiruma's POV~  
As Kurita asked you whether or not you thought the fliers would work, you turned some of your attention to a girl sitting in the very back of the , unlike everyone else, was unaffected by the fact that you were there.

"Hm?" Kurita paused, noticing you were distracted, "Something wrong?"

"With her, maybe," you replied, pointing, "She must be new." That was the only reason you could think of for her not cowering in her seat like everyone else. Kurita looked over his shoulder to the person you were pointing at.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, turning back to you, "Yes, she is new, actually."

"You know her?" you asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hn, not really. I bumped into her once a couple days ago. She was lost and needed a phone to call a cab."

You didn't say anything in response to Fat-ass's explanaition. but continued to look at the stranger for a few more seconds; you _knew _you'd seen her somewhere other than the store a couple days ago.

~Back to Rai~  
You had finished with your Go game, which was good because it was time for you to get off of the bus.

**_Grrlglgrlgrrrr..._**

'*sigh* I'm hungry,' you thought, and began walking to the restaurant you'd planned on eating at.

It was about 9:15 when you finally reached the restaurant. It wasn't crowded when you got there, thankfully, and you sat at the far back away from the window, facing the door. After a few moments a waitress came by and asked, "The usual?"

"Yes please," you answered, and she walked away. In about ten minutes you were served with some soba noodles, a large glass of milk, and a small order of sashimi(1).

~Time lapse~  
You opened the door to your apaprtment and entered as quietly as you could. The small tuberware box you'd snuck the sashimi into was quickly placed into the fridge; you didn't want to wake Kyuri up.

After sneaking into your bedroom and changing into your pajamas, you set an alarm on your cell to go off earlier in the morning so you'd have time to take a shower. Then, you carefully got on the coach and fell asleep.

~Next morning~  
You awoke to the sound of your alarm, which annoyed you more than usual due to the hour at which you went to sleep last night. After a fair amount of yawning, stretching, and popping of almost every joint in your body as a result of stretching, you finally got up.

"Nyaoow!"

You looked down to see Kyuri staring up at you with a pitiful wide-eyed look set ong his face. You scooped the feline up in your arms and carried him to the kitchen as you stroked his back. However, once you started to open the fridge, he became very excited, and tried to reach for the plastic container once you took it out.

"Here's your breakfast," you announced, placing Kyuri's bowl on the floor. The cat flew out of your arms and began stuffing his face with fish, purring loudly. As Kyuri was eating you fixed your own breakfast (cereal) and got ready for school.

"Alright Kyuri," you said, slinging your bag on your shoulder, "You can come with me today."

You met up with Sena on your way to school and, not surprisingly, he was curious about Kyuri.

"Won't you get in trouble for bringing him to school?" he asked after hearing you explain.

"Not if I leave hikm ourtside," you replied, scratching the cat's ears.

~Time lapse~  
Your classes had gone alright so far, and it was now lunch period. Grabbing your lunch from your locker, you went outside and sat under you (you claimed it as yours) tree and enjoyed the relative silence as you ate. Kyuri trotted up to you a few minutes later, the bell on his collar chiming.

"Hey Kyuri!"

~~~~  
Hiruma was walking in the school, heading for the clubroom. Walking out the entrance door, he turned toward the direction of the shed, then stopped. The demon's ears twitched, having heard an unusual noise, and as he stood there he quickly realized it was a bell.

"What the hel...?" he muttered, turning to see what it was. He knew it was getting closer, and after waiting a few seconds, he saw a grey cat round the corner of the building. It was wearing a light purple collar, the source of the jungling sound.

'What's a fucking cat doing here?' he thought, a bored and uninterested look on his face. Figuring that it'd just wandered from home to explore, Hiruma paid no more attention to it and turned back around and started walking. the cat, in turn (and for reasons unknown) kept pace with him, going in the same direction. Hoping the feline didn't suddenly take a liking to him and decide to follow him around all day, Hiruma took out a gun in the event that that turned out to be the case.

However, once they reached the end of the building, the cat quickened it pace and darted forward. hiruma looked up, expecting to see a bird or something that would've triggered such a response from the creature. What he saw, however, wasn't a bird; it was a person sitting under a tree a short distance from the shed. Upon closer inspection he saw that it was a girl, and not just any girl. She was the girl that was in the store.

The girl on the bus last night.

The fearless girl.

The new girl.

the hoepless souls that would be put in her place as soon as Hiurma was through with her just like everyone else.

Hiruma continued walking and entered the club, where he took out his laptop and set to work, amiacal grin plastered on his face.

* * *

(1) "sashimi" is sliced, raw meat, usually fish, but it can be other stuff.

HEY: I'm gonna start a Q & A thing with Rai, and maybe guest appearances! So send in your questions. Please, try to keep them related to the story or Eyeshield 21, and nothing what-so-ever that involves yaoi, for whatever reason. Thank you!

A/N - Hey everyone! Let me just say, Holy crap Im gettin' slammed with homework from my AP classes, and I'm only in two! DX I'll update whenever I can, but I can guarantee that it'll be on weekends, unless it's a holiday.

* * *


	10. Chapter 9

Can I safely assume that nobody's interested in the interview thing? Haven't had any replies or anything about that...

* * *

**Chapter 10**

It was getting close to being the end of the lunch period, and Hiruma was getting closer to his snapping point. There was absolutely_ nothing _in the school's database about the new chick except her name, grade, and classes. No previous school history or anything like that. The "home address" that she'd given the school was worthless; checking it online, Hiruma found it to be the address of a small convinience store. He figured the phone number wasn't worth shit, either, soncidering that the area code was one for northern Hokkaido(1). As annoyed as he was, however, Hiruma couldn't help but smirk.

'What's the fucking space cadet trying to hide?'

School was finally out, much to your relief. Some of the students (mostly female) were getting curious about you now that they'd figured out you were new to the city and were beginning to approach you were a barrage of questions. Of course, they always had some of their friends with them; apparently they didn't have the guts for a one-on-one conversation with you. Oh well.

You got home and put your bag in your bedroom, then grabbed your work uniforn in a duffel bag and headed to your part-time job at a small store. Whilr you were on the train, your cell rang, and, checking the ID, you answered it.

"Hey Coach," you said casually.

"Rai!" he said cheerfully, "How's school?"

"School-ish."

You could tell by his silence that he'd sweat-dropped at your reply.

"How's your training with that arm?"

"I haven't trained since it happened; I plan on going to the gym tomorrow."

He sighed. "Are you sure you want to be involved with this type of thing, Rai?"

You paused, slightly surprised. It had been a good while since Coach had brought that subject up. He trained you exactly the same as he would anyone else, but he was still totally against you fighting anyway.

"I've already discussed this with you," you said stoically, "Now what's this about?"

"Your first match is coming up, Rai," he stated. His voice was completely somber.

"When is it?"

"Two weeks."

~Time lapse~

You thought back to the conversation you'd had with Coach earlier as you shelved some inventory, especially him questioning you like that.

'Ni, I _don't _want to be an illegal cage fighter,' you thought, 'I _don't _want to be so paranoid about being found out- again' you though bitterly, remembering your reason for moving to the city in the first place. Come to think of it, there were several things having to do with your unusual starting career that you would've happily been without. But you were stuck with it now; you'd been taken into fighting shortly after you left your mother's, and coach had taken you under his wing before another crueler trainer could get to you. It paid a good chunk of your rent and bills, too.

After putti9ng the last of the food and whatnot out of the box and onto the shelves, you took your break and walked outside, sitting on some steps.

'Two weeks,' you thought bitterly, 'And my arm's in a damned sling.'

You wouldn't lie to yourself and say that you weren't nervous, there'd be no point in doing so. There was a lot to worry about, like how you'd explain the ineitable bruises you'd have when you went to school. If you were lucky enough to get out with just bruises. You'd seen the aftermath of real fights before; blackened and swolen eyes, large cuts, missing teeth, broken bones, the works.

And what if you didn't pass? New fighters weren't generally expected to win their first fight - although they'd score major brownie points with the higer ups if they did - they just needed to do well enough to convince the bosses that they were worth keeping.

Unbeknownst to Rai, someone had been following her shortly after she left her appartment, slinking about as slealthily as a shadow. Which really said something, given that her sixth sense was fairly well developed.

Hiruma made a mental note of where she worked, which was a convinience store in his neighborhood. At least he had a starting point in finding out more about the enigmatic female. At the moment she was sitting in front of the store, deep in thought about something, while Hiruma observed from the roof of a nearby building. He knew her shift wouldn't end for a couple more hours (he'd interrogated an employee about it earlier) so he decided to find someone that looked about her age and see what her former classmates had to say about her.

~~~~ You took your phone out of your pocket and dialed Coach's number.

"Rai?"

"I'll be there after work," you said, keeping your statement vague slo any people passing by wouldn't get suspicious. He knew what you meant immediately and said he'd be there with a sparring partner. Hanging up, you repocketed the phone and walked back into the storeto resume working, a sudden uneasiness that you couldn't explain coming over you.

* * *

Well, here it is. Obviously, I kind of changed the POV transitions so that it isn't plainly stated who's point of view it is. I like it bette that way. And seriously, PLEASE send some replied about the Rai interview thing!

(1) Hokkaido is the northern-most regoin of Japan, and is known for it's cold weather and heavy snowfall during the winter. The houses there actally have doors on the second story because the snow gets so deep, it covers the first door. Sapporo, Hokkaido, is famous for their ramen, too.


	11. Interview pt 1

Kiroro: So this is the beginning of the Rai interview thing that I mentioned in the last two chapters of _Definately Different. W_hich, by the way, NOBODY responded to when I asked for questions...

Rai: Disappointing, I'm sure.

Kiroro: Yeah. So I'll say it again. No wait, I won't. I'll have him say it.

Rai: Who?

Kiroro: One sec...

~Waiting~

*crashes and struggling from outside.

"What the fucking hell's going on?! And who the FUCK are you?!!"

Rai: She didn't... -_-

Kiroro: Aha! Here, he'll say it!

Rai: *facepalm* Hiruma?

Kiroro: Yes!

Hiruma: Say what?!

Kiroro: Go-dammit stop shouting in my frickin' house and read this! *points to beginning*

Rai: Are you in a bad mood?

Kiroro: YOU drink that herbal tea crap my mom made and be happy about it then!

Rai: Why did you...

Kiroro: 'Cause I have a cold and she won't let me go to school until I get better. And wow, this is long...

Hiruma: Che. *sits down and takes out gun to polish*

Kiroro: I said say it, damn it!

Hiruma: Go ahead and fuckin' make me! *brandishes gun*

Rai: I'm outta here. *leaves*

Kiroro: *takes katana out of closet* Bring it.

Hiruma: That's not even a real katana, it's a cheap fucking knock-off.

Kiroro: It's real enough t' slice ya up with.

Hiruma: Talking like a yankee now?

Kiroro: You knw this The Office show is pretty dumb.

Hiruma: What the hell does that have to do with what's going on now?!

Kiroro: It'll only get worse man,so say it! Or I'll stalk you.

Hiruma: *eyebrow twitches* You'd better not!

Kiroro: *sings* I'm a gummy bear! Yes I'm a gummy be-

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

Hiruma: Send in your fucking questions you lazy-ass readers!

Kiroro: Thaaaaank you~! (H: Fuck you!) Alright, that ends the first episode of interview with Rai, even though she left like halfway through it... Revenge shall be mine later.

Hiruma: Kekekekekeke! Better run, fucking space cadet!


	12. Chapter 10

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I won't make excuses, it was because I was lazy, pure and simple. As many of you noticed, I attempted to get that interview thing started, but it failed; I didn't even get a single review on it... T_T And I was really looking forward to doing something like that, too.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

~Third person~  
Sitting in a nearby cafe, Hiruma had his laptop and Devil's Handbook open. He was sitting next to the window so he could watch the entrance of the store, waiting for a certain someone's shift to end. His research (snooping) had been satisfactorilly fruitful; he'd found out her previous elementary and middle schools, homerooms, and classmates. He saved the information on his computer (it wasn't worth writing down) for easr reference later. If Rai wasn't going somewhere after work, Hiruma would've started his search for people then, but tomorrow was another day, and most students were aqlready home by now anyway.

Hiruma checked the clock on the wall and smirked.

' 'Bout f***ing time. '

~Rai~  
You clocked out and changed back into your everday clothes, glad to finally be off of work. Walking outside, you looked up at the sky and sighed. It was an orangish color, so you figured by the time you were done training at the warehouse it would be dark, and there tended to be a lot of thugs and creeps in that neighborhood at night. The cab drivers weren't really much better, although you wouldn't have sprung for one anyway, since you running low of free-spending money. You sighed. It was another two weeks until you got paid by the store, and another week for the paycheck from delivering mail, which, coincidentailly, was in the same area as the store. Some time later you arrived at the subway station and bought your ticket. It arrived shortly later and you sat down in your seat, deep in thought.

~~~~  
Hiruma kept a fair amount of distance between himself and Rai as he followed her to the station. From what he'd got out of Kurita, he knew she would pick up on his presence if he got too close; although, judging from the blank look in her eyes, she'd probably be too distracted to notice him, but better safe than sorry. Seeing the girl get in line to buy a ticket, Hiruma grabbed some random guy walking by and waved the Devil's Handbook in front of his face. The man recognized him instantly.

"Wh-what do you want with me?" he stammered, terrified.

"Good, you're cooperative. See that chick over there?" the blonde asked, whirling the man around, "Follow her and tell me where the f*** she's going."

The poor guy knew better than to protest or even think of bailing out, so he grudgingly agreed. Hiruma then snatched his phone, using it to call his own (one of them, anyway).

"And one more thing," Hiruma added, "Don't get too f***ing close, and make sure you're not found out."

With that, he sent the man to do his assignment while he got his own ticket, cutting to the front of the line.

~Rai~  
You were getting more and more noervous as the subcar got closer to your stop. Aside from nervousness, you also felt a twinge of dread, but you assumed that was for the same reason as your being nervous. You still couldn't grasp the fact that you had two weeks - _weeks!_ - to prepare yourself for your fight, not to mention that it would be your first one to boot!

You dwelled on that last one for a moment before becoming extremely annoyed; fighters usually had two months notice before any fight, regardless of how experienced they were.

"Tch."

~Time lapse~  
You reached the warehouse about a half hour of walking from the subway station, and were currently inside.

"Rai," you coach said, "Don't push yourself too hard. You need that arm to heal, and it's just a sparring match."

"Yeah, yeah," you muttered, waving him off as if he were a fly buzzing around your head.

~~~~  
Hiruma, having gotten on the same sub tain, got off at the same stop as Rai, relieving the man of his stalking duty. The demonic teen smirked as he noticed how obvious it was that she _really _didn't want to be followed. If how tense she was and how she kept subtly looking around was an ything to go by, anyway. He kept his distance as she began walking to God-knows-where, and actually almost lost her twice because of it. He also couldn't help but notice that the area they were in was definately not the best of neighborhoods, especially since it was getting dark.

Eventually, Rai stopped in front of a seemingly normal warehouse and took out her phone. To his mild irritation, Hiruma couldn't tell what she was saying, but he figured it was a assword of some sort as the door was opened a few moments later. As the girl walked into the building and closed the door, her fiendish stalker couldn't help but notice the perfect view there was through the building's windows from the roof of a neighboring warehouse.

~Rai~  
You looked aroung to see fighters (or fighters-in-training) sparring, training with their coaches, and resting. After changing in a seperate room into some work-out clothes, you started warming up for your own sparring match.

"Gin!"* your coach called, "It's time!"

* * *

* Rai's coach gave her a nickname to use when other people would be able to hear them conversing, for security reasons. It's actually quite common for any of the fighter's to have an alias.

Gin= silver.

Please rate and review, anything's appreciated.


	13. Chapter 11

First of all, let me say that I am extremely sorry for the huge delay and for the shortness of this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Hiruma had found his perch on the roof of the next building. He cackled to himself as he looked through the binoculars; the angle and location of the windows allowed him to get a perfect view of what was going on, but looking out from the inside of the warehouse, one would only see the sky. At the moment, Rai was warming up for something, but Hiruma couldn't tell right then what for. Then he saw her walk up to an improvised fighting ring and step into it, which caused him to smirk maniacally.

'Bingo,' he thought smugly. His smug smirk suddenly disappeared and turned into a look of mild interest and curiousity when he saw her face, though. Any gentleness in her eyes seemed to be smothered y determination, any compassion crushed and replaced by uncaring ferocity. Her demeanor itself had changed as well; she was rigid, tense, and her eyes were fixated on her opponent, who had just stepped into the ring, as if she was itching to lunge at him.

She looked dangerous.

"Gin," Coach said sternly, his voice a mere murmer so only you could hear it. You turned your head to look at him. "Remember, it's only a sparring match; don't lose it." You nodded after a moment and turned back to your opponent as some of the humanity slowly resurfaced in your eyes. Coach hated it when you got this way. Coach, in fact, was your second trainer;;your first had been the one that found you wandering the streets. He'd seen something in you, "potential," and had been unyeilding and, more often than not, cruel in his training you. When Coach had taken over your training, you were nothing like the girl you were before the ordeal nor who you were now; grown men would avoid you with uneasy glances in your direction, and the few times you went on the streets children would tear uo and say to their parents, "Miommy, is she a monster?", "Daddy! She's scary!!" You'd never paid them even a glance as the parents quickly hushed their distressed children.

You'd been trained by that man for four years to be that way.

"Ready?" a referee asked, looking back and forth between you and your opponent.

"Ya kiddin'?" the guy asked, eyeing your slinged arm cockily, "This'll be a damned cakewalk! "Specially since she's a girl!"

Your left eyebrow gave an involuntary twotch at his comment, but you kept your mouth shut and nodded at the ref. The referee gave the signal for the match to start and immediately the man lunged at you.

'Che, he's more of a rookie than I am,' you chided mentally, dodging him easily and tripping him with your foot.

"Guh!" he grunted, flying and ungracefully landing on the floor. You whirled around, facing him in a defensive stance, but didn't approach. Groaning, he slowly hoisted himself back on his feet. **End chapter 11**


	14. Chapter 12

I'm really sorry about how long it's been since my last update! My only excuse? Sheer, unadulterated laziness. I'll try to be more motivated. Also, if anyone is interested, I'm thinking about getting a plot beta to make sure I don't do something that contradicts previous chapters, since I don't really like going back and rereading stuff to make sure I'm not making a mistake.

If you're interested, PM me, but I'll give a fair warning: I'll be picky.

* * *

**Chapter 12**

'God-_damn _this guy's hopeless,' you thought. Apparently, his coach was having similar thoughts, because he'd exploded into a face red as a tomato that was spewing profanities nonstop. Across the ring your coach had dead-panned; whether it was from the other coach's mouth or your opponent's incompetence you couldn't tell.

Hiruma watched in amusement as Rai easily tripped the idiot running toward her. He had to wonder if her coach had deliberately set the match up to her advantage due to her arm, because it was clear she out-classed her opponent in speed and forethought. He looked down at his Devil's Handbook for a moment to write down some information before redirecting his attention back to the match. The man had -finally- brought himself to his feet and was apparently yelling something.

~~Time lapse~~

Your opponent had gotten serious after he'd hauled himself to his feet, and you both were staring each other down, although he was doing it in an aggravatingly annoying manner, yelling something about how you'd be crying at the end of the match.

~Time lapse~

"Alright, Gin!" your coach called, "That's enough!"

You stopped and turned to your coach as your opponent's coach called to him as well. Once you were both out of the ring, the four of you walked around to meet each other.

"Thank you for teaching me," you said, bowing formally. It was expected to bow and give thanks to your opponent if you were the one that asked for the match. He bowed stiffly in return, shooting you a scathing glare; apparently he didn't like the fact that he'd practically lost. After they left, you turned to your coach and asked, "You set me up with a total loser on purpose, didn't you?" Coach irked at your statement and began rubbing the back of his head, smiling nervously.

"Well, I didn't know he'd be _that _pathetic..."

You grunted a reply, then went to get changed into your normal clothes, and left afterward. You grimaced as you looked up at the sky, noticing how dark it was getting. You hated walking at night with all the creeps roaming around, and the fact that your gray eyes didn't absorb a lot of light, thus greatly hindering your night vision, left you feeling vulnerable. A few minutes after you left the warehouse, you felt someone approaching you.

'Wait a second,' you thought, tense and alert, 'Don't tell me it's _him. _Only one person emits an energy like that!'

Sure enough, the person walked out of an alleyway with a machine gun rested lazily on his shoulder. Looking over at you nonchalantly as if he hadn't known you were there until that moment, he blew a bubble with his gum as he pulled out a small, black notebook. You saw writing on the front cover, but couldn't make it out due to the slowly diminishing light. As suspicious as you were, you decided to play nice and innocent to avoid any problems.

"Hiruma-san?" you blurted, "confused," "What're you doing here?"

Hiruma's gum bubble popped as he looked up at you with a smile that made you even more uneasy; a fiendish smile that said he knew something.

"Could ask you the same thing, fucking Space Cadet. Let me say," he added, brandishing his book, "You were a real pain in the ass to find any information on."

Your eyes widened as you took in his words and realized he wasn't brandishing just any book; it was his Devil's Handbook, and you were it's newest entry. Dropping the innocent act, you gave him a cold, empty glare.

"You followed me."

"Kekekekeke! Sorta. So sorry," his voice was laced with sarcasm, "But after finding a fake address and phone number, no previous school history, and a forged signature on your enrollment papers..." he trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence. You quickly realized the position you were in; he was backing you into a corner, easily, and you hated it. The smug, superior smirk he was giving you didn't help, either.

'How could I have been so _stupid?' _you thought furiously, thinking back through your day to see where you'd made your mistake. "What do you want?"

Hiruma's grin widened. "Answers," he replied, pointedly waving the notebook a couple times. Rai's gaze hardened, and Hiruma cocked his eyebrow in interest. The girl's fearless defiance was something he'd never encountered before, and he had to admit that she had an impressive glare. What she said next actually took him by surprise, though, and had him questioning her intelligence and sanity.

"No."

* * *

Just randomness here, but you know what I don't get about disclaimers?

Why do people think they need them? I mean, this place is called "fan fiction" for a reason, and everybody that uses this site knows that no one is really trying to steal the original...

Anyway, reviews are nice, I like feedback, and thanks to everyone that reviews and/or added this to their favorites!


	15. Chapter 13

Hey people!

Thank you **ShadowLegacy11 **and** Moonstar66 **for adding this to story alerts/favorite stories.

**ShadowLegacy11 - **I'm glad you're getting excited! Hope you enjoy this chapter.

**.is. - **Rai was thinking something along the same lines. He did it on purpose, somewhat; he knew the guy wasn't as good as her, but he didn't think he'd be that much of a failure. And thank you!

Also, still hoping to find a plot beta! Mostly to make sure I don't contradict something a said in previous chapters and to keep the events of Eyeshield 21 within the correct time constraints. Please message me if you're interested!

Also, I have a question for y'all, and I refuse to update until I get at least one answer.I've been exceptionally lazy with it, but I do intend on working on the interview/total randomness thing that I posted god-knows how long ago. I'm thinking I'l; just post those as separate stories. Should I, or should I have them as extra chapters?

* * *

"No?" Hiruma asked, "You really..."

"Not here, anyway," Rai added, interrupting the tall quarterback. Hiruma's eyebrows went from raised to slightly furrowed, and he sent Rai a bit of a glare of his own. "I don't want to risk someone overhearing what I'll be saying, it's bad enough already that _you _know. Besides," she continued, briefly looking around, "I really don't like this area of town, so I'm going home." That having been said, Rai turned away from Hiruma and continued walking to the train station.

As you continued walking, you started to become increasingly annoyed with a certain someone that had decided to follow you once more. Well, it was more like (for lack of a better term)accompanying you, since he was walking with you instead of sleuthing about in the shadows. You wondered why he hadn't just called himself a cab or something, but decided you wouldn't ask.

'He's probably gonna try to find out where I live,' you thought as a dead-pan look made its way onto your face.

~Time lapse~

Standing at the station waiting for your train, you didn't have a hard time picking up the vibes and noticing the stares from the people wondering why the hell you weren't petrified being in such close proximity to a blond devil, and what you'd done to merit such cruelty. To the few brave souls that scrounged up the guts to ask, you told them he'd kidnapped you and was holding you hostage until the ransom payment came in. However, Hiruma found out about it fairly quickly, and putting a damper on your fun by smacking you upside the head and threatening to "shoot your ass and throw you in front of the next fucking train that goes by" if you didn't stop spreading rumors, and he brandished some sort of machine gun to prove he could. You made sure that your face remained stoic and blank as you mentally laughed your head off. Not so long after that the train came, and you boarded, walked to your seat, and flopped down.

'Maybe I'll look for another part-time job,' you thought, staring blankly out the window at the lights that were flashing by. Truth be told, you really did want to leave your soon-to-be fighting career, but it had paid the bills that the job at the store had fallen short on. You made a mental note to yourself to tell Coach about Hiruma before you left, to give him a heads up.

'Speaking of the devil,' you thought, eyebrows furrowing slightly as you looked up, 'Where'd he go?' You looked around the car briefly, but you couldn't find him. 'He's probably got some poor soul cowering in a corner as he interrogates them.'

Meanwhile, Hiruma was, indeed, interrogating someone, but at least they weren't cowering. Hiruma had gotten a hold of the ticket collector that had come to recognize you, and the guy was shaking like a leaf on a windy tall blond had asked him about everything he knew about you and your habitual stops, and even made him mark them on a flier, with numbers based on how often you were known to get off at each one. Having finished with the man, Hiruma headed back to his seat, which was right next to you since he had been right behind you in the ticket line. You couldn't say you were particularly over-joyed about it, but you didn't bother saying anything. You pulled out your phone to look at the time and sighed; it was already nine, and you hadn't even done any of your homework.

'At least I fed Kyuri before I left,' you thought, turning your gaze back to the window. Hiruma took out his laptop and began rapidly typing, every once in a while blowing a gum bubble. You really wanted to take a nap, since it'd be a short while since your stop would come, but you didn't trust Hiruma enough to give him the perfect opportunity to steal and go through your phone and wallet.

'Not that he'd find any...' you stopped, staring blankly out the window for a moment; then it hit you.

You forgot to erase your "recently called" list.

Cursing yourself, you got up as if to go to the restroom, but got tripped by a certain someone. You turned to him and sent him a glare that said "up yours," but he simply blew another bubble and continued typing as if nothing had happened. You turned, continued walking, and reached for you phone when you reached the door. Not finding it, you felt your other pocket. Not there, either. A flashback of Hiruma tripping you raced through your mind.

'He didn't...' you thought, turning slowly around to look at Hiruma accusingly. As if on cue, he looked up at you, meeting your glare with nonchalance, which lasted about three seconds before it transformed into a mocking grin.

'He did!'

Clenching your teeth for a moment, you whirled around and quickly made your way back toward him, yanking his laptop screen back to see your phone being held in his long fingers. Your hand lashed out to snatch the phone, but, unfortunately, Hiruma was faster. This fact, coupled with the triumphant sneer he threw at you, managed to seriously piss you off. So, you did what any normal, pissed-off teenage girl would do; you _lunged _for your phone (or him, you honestly didn't know at that moment). Thankfully, that section of the train was practically empty.

Obviously taken aback by your out-of-character behavior, Hiruma managed to grab his computer and hastily put it on the empty seat next to him before you grabbed his wrist with your good arm, trying to pull your phone close enough to you to allow you to grab it with your other hand while avoiding any preventable pain on your left arm. Which, surprisingly, was going quite well for you; although Hiruma was succeeding thoroughly in keeping your phone away from you with ease, he seemed to be well aware of your hindered arm, because the pain was only a dull ache from moving it around. Still, you definitely weren't able to move it as nimbly as you were able to with your right arm. Oh well; some functionality was better than none. After another minute or two, he must've gotten sick of your being such a pain because he pinned you up against the back of a seat in front of him with his foot.

'This is so embarrassing,' you thought moodily, trying to pry his foot off of your stomach. However, the only thing you got out of your efforts were a few grunts squished out of you as he pushed harder whenever you tried to move his leg. And some amused smirks from the belly-squasher himself, at which you glared defeatedly.

"Where was I again?" Hiruma asked himself, looking back at your phone with a huge smile and continuing to go through it, "I wonder what you've got here that you oh-so-desperately want me not to see?"

~Time lapse~

Having been released from the captivity of Hiruma's foot, you waited quietly in your seat for Hiruma to finished with your phone. He wrote something down in his Devil's Handbook with a huge grin before tossing it back to you.

"Keep quiet about me knowing any of this or I'll bust the whole thing wide open for the cops," he added as your phone plopped into your lap.

"I'm telling my coach, and he'll keep his mouth shut about it if he knows you'll turn us all in. He's not like the rest of the people there, so I'm going to give him a heads up so that, in the event that things go south, he'll have a chance to get out."

Hiruma looked over at you for a second with a quirked eyebrow and made a mental note to pay a visit to your coach and see what it was about him that made you so determined to protect him; you seemed like an out-for-yourself kind of person. The rest of the trip went by in fairly uneventful silence for which you were grateful.

~Next morning~

Again walking to school with Sena, you had told him the story of having met up with Hiruma yesterday (minus any details he was better of without).

"You really told people he was holding you hostage?" he asked, a sweatdrop rolling down his head.

"Yes," you replied, "I stopped when he threatened to shoot me and throw me in front of a train." The look on the smaller boy's face made you laugh inwardly, as you could imagine how he was picturing the scene. "It was amusing annoying him, though, since I was bored."

Sena's expression immediately changed to one of shock/horror. "Making someone like Hiruma-san angry is not a healthy pass-time!"

~Lunch~

Your day had been as monotonously dull as usual, save for receiving a note from some girl you didn't know during break between second and third period. Seeing how scared she looked, you had a pretty good idea as to whom it might be from, and you were proved correct when you read it.

_Be on the roof at lunch, fucking Space Cadet!_

'I wonder how long he's going to keep calling me that,' you wondered, walking up the stairs with your tray. You'd decided that, starting tomorrow, you'd bring your own lunches, because you weren't particularly fond of standing in line in a noisy cafeteria and wasting about 25 minutes of your lunch period waiting to get some food.

Opening the door leading outside to the roof, you looked around and saw that Hiruma was already there, although it didn't surprise you. You sighed and walked forward, knowing that lunch today was definitely not going to be a pleasant one. **  
**


	16. Chapter 14

Yo! Here's chapter 14, hope you all enjoy it. Sorry that it's kinda short. Thank you to **Ammywolflover, GhostHoundFanGirl, Atari86, **and **exaigon **for adding this to your favorite stories/story alerts!

**xDarklightx - **Thank you! You seem to be my most loyal reviewer. Makes me happy to have input so regularly from someone! I present to you this virtual box of virtual ice cream mochi for you to enjoy.

**Moonstar66 - **Wow. Just wow. XD Your last review made me laugh, thanks for that! I'm glad it made you so happy! And yay! Cookies! *reaches for cookie* _Thunk. _Grr... *reaches again* _Thunk. _Damn screen! _Thunk thunk thunkthunkthunk! _God damn it, NOOOO! *cries*

Also, plot beta position is still open!

**Notice: **For anyone that's good at drawing anime, I'd love to see pictures, if you want to! Obviously the only reward I can offer is my gratitude and a recognition up here, but I can't draw worth a bean and I'd love to see pictures of Rai as the readers imagine her. Please let me know if you draw any!

* * *

"So," you started, trying to maintain a nonchalant demeanor, "What do you want?"

What with Rai's situation being so unique amongst Hiruma's other black book entries, the quarterback was actually curious as to how she wound up in it. "How the hell does a teenage, high school _girl _wind up in that kind of operation?"

You sighed as you took a bite of a riceball. You didn't really feel like telling Hiruma the story, and you knew he was sharp enough to figure it out if you were to try leaving some bits out. On the other hand, when you thought about it, there wasn't actually any harm in telling him; he couldn't tell anyone since that was his only dirt on you so far.

"Alright, I'll tell you. on the condition that that's the only interrogative question you ask me today."

Hiruma's eyes narrowed as he blew a gum bubble. "Start talking."

_Having gotten fed up with you mother's constant verbal abuse accompanied with a hearty side of getting beaten around, you left the house when she'd passed out on the couch. You hadn't bothered going through her purse or looking in the cookie jar for any money; any cash she got was quickly blown on booze, and you wouldn't have been able to rob her of any she might've had, anyway. You did, however, pack some food and a bottle of water, along with a couple changes in clothes and your school books._

_Being only twelve years old, it was impossible for you to rent a place of your own, so you wandered around town for a while looking for the safest-looking place you could find to sleep. Of course, people thought it was more than a little odd to see a young girl walking around by herself with a rolling luggage bag, but you assured the ones that asked that you were perfectly fine. At some point you'd stumbled upon the public library, which was fortunately open that day. So, you'd hang out there shortly before it closed and hid while the librarian closed up. After a few days of camping out there, you realized that it was closed on weekends, which led you to think of your weekend sleeping place; the school. _

_You hadn't been out on your own for very long before you were taken in by the fighting organization, probably two or three weeks or so. You were walking around town heading to the store to buy a sleeping bag (your thin blanket wasn't cutting it anymore). A group of kids that went to your school had seen you, and, with your reputation around school, decided they'd put you in what they believed was your place. You'd been chased into a relatively deserted dead-end alley in your attempt to escape them. After some verbal threats and harsh words, they decided to make you pay for having (supposedly) cast a hex on Chiori, so they picked up anything they could find as a weapon, most notable amongst them glass bottles and a couple metal rods. Of course, they didn't care about you persistence in claiming your innocence._

_A fight had broken out, and after a scuffle and receiving several bruises and cuts, you managed to wrench a rod from one of the boys. Backed into a corner, you glared defiantly at the group of kids, white-knuckling the rod in a defensive stance. One of them rushed forward, also carrying a metal rod, and made to swing it down on you with a shout. Letting out a yell of your own, you rushed at him with everything you had, having gotten tired in dealing with the lot of them. _

_**Clang!**_

_"We don't want you here around us!" the boy shouted, struggling a bit to force you back._

_"I don't want to be here around YOU!" you retaliated._

_"What's going on?" a man had shouted, and everyone except you and the boy turned tail and booked it out of there. You'd managed to push back hard enough to knock the boy's weapon aside, and after disarming him, you tossed yours away as well and let out a feral screech as you threw a punch at him. After that everything went by as a blur; your rage at him and everyone else was the only clear thing you remembered. When you'd come back to your senses, the man that had shouted before had his arms locked under yours and behind your head so you couldn't move, and the boy was cowering about ten feet away, looking a hell of a lot worse for wear than you did. _

_"Let me go!" you snarled, struggling to the best of your ability to free yourself, "Let me go! Let me have 'im, let me have him!"_

"The man that had stopped me was the same one that was my first coach," you concluded, standing, "He brought me in to the head hanchoes of the organization and asked if he could train me; said something about me having "potential"."

~Time lapse~

The rest of the school day had gone by normally, and you were now at home lounging on the couch. You decided that tomorrow you'd finally start really using your right arm again and go to the gym; you'd been able to lose the sling and move it about since yesterday.

~Several days later~

You'd visited the gym once since you go rid of your arm sling, but Coach had said that since your fight was so close, trying to significantly improve your strength would be a waste of energy, so you focused more on sparring and improving your skills instead. You'd also told him about Hiruma, and after looking concerned, he told you that there wasn't anything either of you could really do about it.

"I'd like to meet this guy, though," Coach had though he was a total quack upon having been told this; most people would want to stay away from the person threatening to blow a secret big enough to land you in prison. But Coach was weird like that, and you'd long since given up on putting too much effort into figuring out his thinking process.

"I don't think you'll have to wait long," you replied dryly, relentlessly beating the punching bag in front of you, "That guy's nosy as hell, so he's bound to be snooping about here at some point or another. It actually wouldn't surprise me if he was up on some roof spying on us, trying to get more dirt on me."

"I didn't mean meet him here!" Coach exclaimed, a comically freaked-out look on his face. You laughed and tackled the task of the punching bag. After a while you and Coach agreed that you'd done enough for the day and that it was time to wrap things up, so you hefted the punching bag off of the hook it was hanging on and hauled it into the corner it was stored with, along with the others. After you changed, you headed for the exit, Coach not far behind you so he could close the door. As you were about to reach for the bar, you stopped, then turned to your coach and asked, "Remember what you said about meeting Hiruma?"

"Yeah...?" he replied slowly, with a hint of suspicion.

"Be careful what you wish for."

**

* * *

**Well, that's it for this one. Aah, kind of a cliff-hanger, ne? *smirks* Nyahahaha, suffer! YIIIII! *dodges objects flying in general direction* Ha! Yer aim sucks! _THUD! _Ow! Shit! Who the hell throws APPLES?

Reviews and feedback are really nice, and may influence the speed at which chapters are posted! *innocent shifty-eyes*


	17. Chapter 15

Well, here's chapter 15. Enjoy.

**Plot beta position is still open! DX**

**Also, would love to see any artwork relating to the story!**

**Ammywolflover, **thanks for adding me as a favorite author. Gives me a feeling of accomplishment! And thanks to you, too, **randomchickadee, **for adding this as a favorite story.

**Moonstar66 - **I picture the cake looking something like this - . At which I say, UGH! You're evil, ya know that? Evil, I tell you! First I bash up my fingers (and computer screen) trying to get them damned cookies, now I gotta suffer even more with the cake! T.T Ah, well, thought that counts I guess! XD Thanks for reviewing!

**.is. - **Thanks. X3

**ShadowLegacy11** - I'm glad you like it, thank you.

**xDarklightx - **Haha, I hope you like Coach's reaction to Hiruma in this chapter.

* * *

"What're you talking about?" Coach asked, confused, but you didn't answer. Instead, you opened the door and lead him outside, leaving the job of locking up to somebody else.

"Just come with me." Walking down the alley you typically took, you stopped suddenly - which almost caused your coach to crash into you - and called out, "Alright Hiruma, come out! This is my coach, and he wants a word with you."

"I should've known..." Coach muttered. He'd been aware of you sixth sense almost immediately after he took you in, although he didn't know the full extent of them. A few seconds later the two of you heard footsteps, and upon turning to face the direction they were coming from, saw the shadowy sillhouette of Hiruma Yoichi emerging from an alley to your left.

"Has he been tailing us this whole time?"

"He's been tailing _me _since I got off of the train."

"You knew?" they both said, although Coach's voice was definately more easily distinguished since he'd almost shouted it. You looked over at Hiruma with a smirk.

"And here you thought you were being _sooo _clever."

Hiruma's eyebrow twitched. "Che!"

"So you're the Hiruma Yoichi, school devil, Rai has told me about?" Coach asked, suddenly becoming totally serious.

"What of it?"

For a moment, there was no reply. Then Coach said, with total, unadulterated bluntness, "You look more like a pixie to me."

A loud snort escaped your nose upon hearing this. A pixie! And the look on Hiruma's face was priceless! 'He'll never live it down! I won't let him. Oh god, that's rich, a PIXIE!'

~Time lapse~

Not wanting to be overheard, you insisted that the three of you moved somewhere more secure, and since you were hungry, Coach dragged you to a nearby sushi bar. You cursed your stupid stomach for picking such a _great _time to betray you; you hated it when Coach did this kind of thing, it made you feel bad for having money spent on you. Once at the restaurant, you all sat at a booth in the back where there were fewer people; you and Coach on one side, and Hiruma facing the two of you on the other. You'd ordered a bowl of udon from the waiter that had come by and it had finally shown up. However, just as you were about to take a bite, you caught a glimpse of Hiruma from your peripheral vision, and immediately the pixie thing came back to mind.

"What the hell's so damned funny, fucking Space Cadet?" Hiruma demanded, noticing the snort and attempts to hide your smile.

"Never mind that," Coach interrupted, "I'm sure you know why I wanted to talk to you, right?" The only reply he got from the blonde was a smirk accompanied with a "Hn". Coach continued. "Rai has told me about how you know about what's going on. She's also told me why you know, and I'd have to say you're a complete ass for it." At this Hiruma only smirked again, as if it were a compliment. "However, I think I can see something benefitial about the situation."

'What?' you thought frantically, almost choking on the noodles you were about to swallow. You decided that Hiruma was also taken aback by Coach's statement, judging by how his smirk disappeared and was replaced by a look of mild interest, raised eyebrow included.

"You're the leader of a football team, correct?" For a moment Hiruma was silent.

"You want her to _join _football?"

"No. However," Coach added, contemplating, "Participating in the practices may be beneficial to Rai's training."

"Absolutely _not,"_ you said coolly, but there was an icy undertone to your voice, "If you think I need to train more, than I'll show up more often and stay later, but I will not bring myself down to asking _him_" you jerked your head to Hiruma "for help. I have no intention of endebting myself any more than I already am to thee guy who's working on turning me into another slave."

"How are you endebted to him in the first place?" Coach asked.

"He hasn't revealed us yet."

There was a silent pause in the conversation after that. Coach looked down at the table, thinking to himself, and Hiruma looked at you in contemplation. Then he turned to your coach, narrowed his eyes a bit, and asked, "Why the sudden stress on all this training?"

Coach could tell by the tone of the boy's voice that lying or not answering wasn't a good idea. He looked at you, and after a moment you sighed, closing your eyes and turning toward Hiruma. "My first official fight is in a little over a week. It's like a test; new fighter's aren't necessarily expected to win, but it impresses the judges a lot more and is pretty much a guarantee of becoming an official fighter. The judges are looking for potential fighters that show promise, so even if you lose they could still pass you if they think you're worth anything."

"Unfortunately," Coach added, drinking some of the coffeehe'd ordered, "The higher-ups have had it in for Rai ever since she got there. The fact that she's so young is part of it, but it's mostly because she's a girl. They don't think she'd be worth the time and resources to keep her and have tried getting me to trade her off with other trainees. So we can bet that they'll send her an opponent that is far more skilled and experienced than they normally would."

Another pause in the conversation. You reached up and grabbed a dish of sushi from the conveyor belt and began eating. Hiruma looked at you for a few seconds, then back at Coach, and _smiled._ You could've sworn the temperature dropped by at least 15 degrees at that moment, and you looked over at Coach and smirked at the look on his face.

~Time lapse~

Sitting on the train (again next to Hiruma) you watched the scenery fly by the window. You knew Coach was right to think of training with Hiruma and his team; it probably would benefit you greatly. Your pride was stronger than your reasoning at that moment, though.

'Besides, he'd probably use that as more leverage in getting me to do what he wants.' You sighed. 'On the other hand, I could watch the practices, to see if I could learn anything from them.' That having been decided, you let your head fall against the window with a thud and decided to take a nap since you were tired. Also, you no longer worried about Hiruma going through your cell phone, since he successfully did that the last time you were stuck on the train with him. Closing your eyes, you quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Well, here it is. I love reviews and questions you may have! Also, I need your opinions on this, please: Should Rai play football with the team? I was kind of thinking no, because just about EVERY fanfic involving an OC has them play on he team, and I figured it would be unoriginal. But I could definitely make it work, too. Please answer the question!

Also, I've been well aware for quite a while now that I spelled definitely wrong in the title. Typos happen in the wee hours of the morning, obviously, and I'm too lazy to change it. Apparently nobody noticed though. No comment.


	18. Chapter 16

Yo! Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy.

**GhostHoundFanGirl - **Thanks. And alright! She's gonna draw Rai! I can't wait to see it!

**.is. - **Thanks.

**ShadowLegacy11 - **Thank you for the constructive review! I love input like this. The only thing I don't like about having Rai play football is that EVERYBODY has their OC play football. Buut maybe I'll have her as a back-up or something. For the constructive review, I give you

**xDarklightx - **Thanks.

Also, thanks to** animeBAKA1, ThornRose16, helloMoRnInG, **and **Hoshi Hanabi **for adding this story to your favorites, and adding me as a favorite author!

**Notice: **Still looking for a plot beta, and as always, I'm looking for story art!

You know, I thought of just how long this story is, and I'll just say: Sorry to anyone that is bothered by this. I just write lots of details, because I hate stories that lack them. I'm also partial to longer stories, too.

* * *

_You were standing in complete and total darkness with no clue as to where you were. Lifting your hand, you couldn't even see a sillhouette of it when you could feel your breathe on your palm. _

_'What's going on?'_

_Giving up on trying to let your eyes adjust to the darkness, you instead tried to sense anything that might be around you. Unfortunately, this also failed; everything you picked up was extremely muddled, and you couldn't discern heads or tails from it. The energies were unfamiliar, too, which only worsened your sense's confusion._

_'Damn. Where the hell am I? Wait...There!' You found an en energy that you recognized, and after a few seconds' concentration, you recognized it as... 'Coach?' You knew then that you had to be at the training warehouse if Coach was there. But then you noticed something about Coach that made your spine shiver; fear consumed every ounce of the energy you picked up. _

_Coach was never afraid. Not once had you witnessed a moment where even a sliver of fear had come to him, even when he found out about how big a threat Hiruma was. And then it hit you._

_No, something literally HIT you, and whatever it was sent you flying. You crashed into what you realized were ropes, and opened your eyes to discover that you were ina ring; a fighting ring. 'So that means...' Looking up, you saw that your opponent was slowly making their way toward you. Strangely, you couldn't actually see them, it was more like a shadow mass or something in the general shape of a human. 'Shit!' You sprang to your feet and dashed forward to get away from the ropes, looking for an opening in the enemy's defense. _

_Suddenly, they were right in front of you, and you took another pounding, this time finding yourself flat on your back. It continued on and on like this for what seemed like hour to you, and you were too exhausted to even stand. Panting heavily and desperately trying to drag youself to your feet, you managed to lift your eyes just enough to glimpse the shadow in its leisurely advance toward you._

_'Can't...'_

_"Gin!" Coach hollered, "Gin, just throw the fight! There's no point in continuing with this, please!'_

_You looked around and saw Coach staring back at you in a panic, then swept your gaze around the entire area. You realized that you weren't at the training warehouse at all, but somewhere completely different. There were rows and rows of audience bleachers, some of which held people in it that were watching you intently. Then your eyes landed in a table near the ring that seated four people, and you knew immediately where you were._

_'I can't lose...!' _

_Hauling yourself to your feet and barely able to stand, you lifted your head and gazed at the shadow person, determined. Again, the ethereal shadow moved as if they were the wind itself and was beside you in an instant, a hand gribbing your arm where it connected to your shoulder._

_'No! I'm completely screwed!'_

_They proceeded to shake your arm, and despite your attempts to remove their hand, your exhausted state prevented you from being able to struggle effectively._

"Oi!" Hiruma said roughly, shaking your arm in an attempt to wake you up. "Oi, wake the hell up!" His aggitation wasn't in the last bit abated when your hand lashed out and grabbed his wrist in a death grip. He was glad the car was empty; the situation was akward enough without there having to be people around to witness it. Vein popping from his forehead, the blond devil gave your shoulder a particularly rough shake. "GET THE FUCK UP!"

The next thing the quarterback knew was that he was being whirled around and slammed down into his seat, getting the wind knocked out of him for a moment. You stood over him with the front end of his shirt collor clenched in one hand, and the other that had previously been clenching Hiruma's wrist was raised and poised for a punch. You hadn't completely registered what had happened yet as you stared at Hiruma dully, as if looking through him, while your breathing had become rough and rapid.

Hiruma held your empty gaze cooly for a moment and, realizing that his hand was still gripping your shoulder out of reflex, he gave you another shake, although not nearly as rough as the one before. You blinked once. Twice. Then, a few seconds later, you seemed to snap out of whatever state you were in, and of course, the first thing you saw was Hiruma. '...'

"Mind letting me go now?"

Another blink from you, this time one of confusion. Looking down, you saw his shirt clenched in your fist, and just then noticed your other arm was raised and, upon looking up to investigate, spotted a fist ready to beat the hell out of him. Slowly, you lowered your hand and released Hiruma's shirt, then stepped to the side in front of your own seat to allow him to stand.

"S-sorry..."

"The hell was that about?"

"Nothing," you breathed, slumping back down in your seat and dropping your head in your trembling hands as you recalled your dream. Hiruma gazed at you for a few seconds as he blew a gum bubble, and when he popped it he spoke.

"Che. Practice is at 6 in the morning, so you'd better be there."

"What stop is this?" you asked, not even caring about him telling you what to do.

"Deimon station."

Sighing, you stood and headed for the exit door as it opened. After you stepped off the train and took a few steps, Hiruma called out to you. "Forget something, fucking Space Cadet?" Turning, you saw him hold up your duffel bag, which you'd forgotten in the bag compartment on the train.

'Way to go, Rai, make yiourself look like an incompetent idiot, why don't you!'

**Fwump!**

"Well? What're you waiting for?" the blond asked, shoving the bag into your arms, "Get moving!"

With that, he turned and began walking toward the exit, and you had no choice but to follow.

~Time lapse~

'This is _definitely _not a coincidence.'

As soon as you and Hiruma had exited the rain station, Hiruma had been taking every turn along your path home that you were going to. It not being about ten or fifteen minutes into your walk, you knew that something was up. And then? You both arrive at your apartment complex and you stopped dead in your tracks. Noticing that you were no longer following him, Hiruma turned around and looked at you with a raised eyebrow as if to say "Now what?" However, you knew he was faking it and sent a glare saying so. In return, the quarterback devil cracked his signature scream-enducing, tear-causing, fang-filled smile.

'SHIT!'

**SLAM!**

"Kyuri! I'm home."

"Mrow!"

"Hey, you're not stuck in the bathroom today!"

You smiled as the cat sprang into your arms and started rubbing his cheeks against your face while purring loudly. Holding him to your chest while rubbing his cheeks and scratching his ears, you gladly snuggled the cat, grateful for the distraction of what had transpired earlier. Sighing, you flopped down onto the couch with Kyuri now sitting on your stomach. The cat, in turn, decided to stretch, and his paws gently touched your face as his claws almost tickled your skin.

"Guess what I brought you for dinner?" you said, swiping your ringer against the bell on his collar. Reaching down to the bag next to the arm of the couch, you pulled out a small styrofoam box and opened it, revealing three pieces of sashimi. You didn't feel like getting up at the moment, so you picked up a piece of the fish and simply fed it to the feline by hand. Since he wasn't a messy eater, you weren't worried about him making a mess on the furniture. Once he was finished eating, you threw the box aaway and did your homework which, sadly for you, included math and history, the two subjects you hated. Thankfully you had English homework, too; you loved foreign languages for some reason. After you finished and got your bag ready for tomorrow, you went took a shower, changing into your pajamas, which consisted of a pair of sweats and a large baggy T-shirt (both a dark blue) and plopped onto the couch, falling asleep quickly.

**DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUN!**

"YA-HA!"

Kyuri hissed loudly and shot off of your stomach, where he was sleeping, leaving several long red scratches in his wake that you wouldn't notice until later due to a much more pressing issue that seemed to have just occured. You shot up off of the couch and whirled around, breathing heavily and searching for the source of the noise.

"Get your ass up, fucking Space cadet! Morning practice, remember!"

You stood in total and incomprehending shock as you blankly stared at the burglarizing, machine gun-weilding quarterback that stood in front of you on the other side of the couch. Then, your senses slowly came back to you as what just happened sank into your still groggy brain.

"You... You fucking SON OF A BITCH! What the hell do you think gives you the damned right to break into my house and wake me up at whatever-the-fucking-hell-it-is in the morning?" Hiruma simply cackled in response with a huge grin and a facial expression that clearly said he was thoroughly enjoying pissing you off. Which he was doing very well. "You're pretty irritable in the morning, aren't you?" "Get the hell out! And whoever said I'd go to your damned practices, anyway?"

"Me!" he replied, grin still plastered on his face, "Now go get dressed and bring your uniform with you!" With that he fired another round of shots from his gun and you, not wanting to get in trouble with the management due to the noise, grudgingly complied, although not without a few choice words and insults thrown in the blond's direction. As you were in your room getting changed, you continued to mutter death-threats and promises of painful torture.

"Don't think I can't hear you!"

"Good!" you shouted, "Consider them your fair warning!"

"Kekekekeke!"

"...Fucking Pixie..."

**DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUN!**

"Say that again and I'll send ya straight to hell!" he exclaimed, and you smirked in satisfaction. 'Heehee, I pissed him off. =^.^='

Jerking your door open, you turned toward Hiruma and retorted, "Then stop calling me a space cadet!" Having said that, you went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbed a riceball that you'd purchased from the convenience store, and headed toward the door while slinging your bag over your shoulder. Kyuri jumped up onto your shoulder just as you started turning the knob. As soon as you locked the door behind you, the hell began.

You arrived at school out of breath and panting heavily, using your knees for support as you stood and took a break. At some point you and Hiruma had caught up with Sena and another boy, whose named you had learned was Raimon Tarou, but everyone called him Monta for some reason.

'Well,' you thought, 'This explains why I haven't bumped into Sena on the way to school recently.'

"N-ne, Arakaki-san," Monta said, panting, "What's with that *pant* cat there?" He pointed to Kyuri, who was sprawled out on his side next to you. As soon as Hiruma started shooting at you to make you run he'd lept off of your shoulder, not liking the idea of having such a turbulent rise. Consequently, he wound up running with you.

"Ah, he's mine. *pant* His name is Kyuri. He comes to school with me *pant* quite often, actually."

**DUDUDUDUDUDUDUN!**

"HIEEEEEE!"

"Alright, beak's over! Get to the field! Fucking midget, go get Eyeshield, now!" And Sena shot off like all hell had broken loose.

"Mukushiii!" Monta exclaimed, dodging bullets while running, "Wait, why's she practicing, too?"

"Don't ask questions!" Hiruma retorted, "Move your ass!"

When you arrived at the football field you saw that there were already some people there. One was Kurita, dressed down in the football uniform and slamming into a tackling dummy. There was also the girl that you'd come to recognize as Sena's annoying and over-protective childhood friend, but you didn't know her name yet. Not knowing what to do yet, you stood next to the bench, at which point another player arrived. You assumed they were Eyeshield due to the green plastic eye protector on the helmet.

'He's a speedy little guy, isn't he?' you mused, noting how fast he was running to get there.

"Ah!" Kurita exclaimed, looking up, "Everyone's here! Hm?" he noticed you sitting on the bench. "Arakaki-san!" he beamed, "Did you wanna join, too?" Seeing the exhilerated look on the giant's face, you felt horrible for what you were about to say.

"No, sorry, I'm just being forced to participate in the practice." Just as you thought, Kurita's face fell and he looked deeply depressed for a moment. 'God, I feel like such an ass now! T.T' However, the lineman didn't have very much time to be depressed, because Hiruma let loose a round of bullets and called everyone's attention.

"Alright, first of all! She-" he pointed at you " is gonna be joining in practice whenever the hell it happens, so I don't wanna hear any questions! Got it?" Everyone nodded. "Good!" The quarterback then proceeded to assign everyone their training regimines for the day. After a short while he had finished his task, having left you to wait on the bench, so you preoccupied yourself in watching Sena and Monta run from a dog Hiruma called Cerberus with tires tied to their waists. So you didn't notice immediately when Hiruma set his sights on you.

"You!" he called, snatching your attention, "Go to the fat-ass, you'll train with him." You got up and walked over to Kurita with Hiruma not far behind you. "Oi! Damn fatty! Let's see how she does with the tackle dummy!"

Looking up upon hearing his nickname, Kurita looked at you for a moment in confusion, then to Hiruma, but didn't ask any questions as he stepped away from the blue dummy and went to stand next to Hiruma. Then they both turned to you, and Hiruma said, "Now tackle it however you'd normally tackle someone!" Sighing, you decided that it'd be best to cooperate and took several steps back, turned to face the dummy, and dashed forward.

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Love reviews! Especially constructive ones! Or questions.

**Random Fact: **the kanji of Hiruma's name can be interpreted to mean "demon in broad daylight". Lol.


	19. Chapter 17

Sorry for the long wait on the update!I have a serious case of writer's block, so now more than ever are your reviews with advice and whatnot appreciated!

Thanks to **Kako Noir **and **jengurunghk **for adding this as one of your favorite stories!

Thanks to **Sable2684 **for putting this on your alerts!

And, to **Sweetie:** I'm sorry, this wasn't exactly a soon update! I'm afraid I did keep you waiting...

Lastly, if there are any of you that are artistically inclined and have nothing better to do, I looooove story art! Haven't got any yet, though, but still... Well, there is one person who's working on a picture! XD

On to the story!

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**Chapter 17**

As you ran forward, you dully noticed that the others that could see what was going on stopped whatever it was they were doing to watch. Hiruma didn't seem to care, though, so you didn't pay them much attention. At this point you were practically right in the tackling dummy's face, so you decided it was a good time to pounce, which you pretty much did. Leaping up, you collided with the upper half of the dummy, your shoulder in the middle of its chest with your hands pushing it backward. Unfortunately, the poor tackling dummy was made for lineman tackles focused more on pushing backward, not on aerial tackles down, so it started to fall.

'Oops.'

~Third person POV~

Everyone watched as Rai gave the dummy a powerful aerial tackle, and Kurita kind of sweat-dropped.

"Um, that's not quite..." However, he didn't finish his sentence due to how Rai was now being practically pole-vaulted into the air.

The expression of surprise on the girl's face was fairly mild as the dummy continued to tilt backward. However, before anyone could fully react to what was going on, Rai quickly reacted by moving one hand onto the shoulder of the dummy while maneuvering her body slightly so that it was in a more favorable position for her. When the dummy was at the right angle, she pushed off from the shoulder, sending herself flying into the air and the dummy crashing to the ground.

"A-Arakaki-san!" Eyeshield exclaimed, concerned. What with Rai being both airborn and upside down, he wasn't the only one. However, their worry was erased when she smoothly rolled over in mid-air and straightened herself up so that she landed lightly on her feet.

~Rai's POV~

"Graceful MAX!" Monta shouted, fist-pumping, "Arakaki-san, that was way cool!"

You started, then looked toward the direction the freshman's voice was coming from, and saw that everyone in the nearby vacinity was looking at you. "Th-thanks, Monta-kun," you murmered, looking down at your feet quickly. You'd just managed to successfully put yourself in the spotlight, and you hated it, so you fidgeted with your fingers and became fascinated with this one particular little rock that just so happened to be in front of your left shoe at the time.

"She landed on her feet just like a cat!" one of the boys exclaimed, but you didn't recognize him. His friend nodded in agreement. Murmers were floating all around, and you blushed and ducked your head even more, simply wishing for some way out.

**DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUN!**

'Sanctuary brought by a demon,' you though in relief, although a sweatdrop was noticable.

"Get back to practice!" Hiruma yelled, firing bullets at the team's feet, before pointing to you, "Damn Cat! Get to the workout room, now!"

You turned tail and walked quickly toward the school, not even bothering to yell at Hiruma for bossing you around. 'The nickname's gotten better, though,' you noted dully. Kyuri had apparently decided that he'd rather sleep in the tree near the field, beccause he hadn't followed you. As you entered the building, you slowed down to a leisurely stroll before stopping completely.

'Where the hell's the workout room?'

~10 minutes later~

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, Hiruma?" you retorted, eyebrow twitching, "I've never been to the workout room and you sent me there with no directions at all!"

"Che," he sneered, machine gun slung over his shoulder, "And asking for them is just too much for you, huh?"

You looked away and rubbed the back of your head sheepishly. "I was in a hurry to get away fom all the attention."

For a few seconds there was silence as Hiruma stared at you with one eyebrow raised inquisitively and somewhat disbelievingly, and you steadily held his gaze with a blank countenence. Then Hiruma turned and started walking away down the hall, and since you were lost (you'd never been to that area of the school) you decided that your best bet was to follow him.

'He's probably going to the workout room, anyway. He wouldn't have sent me there if he wasn't planning on monitoring me somehow.'

Your theory was proven correct a few minutes later when the quarterback threw open a door leading to a somewhat large room with some exercise equipment in it.

"What's your max?" Hiruma asked, gesturing toward the bench pressing machine.

"About 50 kilos."

"You've been in training for how many years and can only pull off 50 kilos?"

"I never put much effort into it until I got transfered over to Coach," you replied sharply, "I hated my first trainer and wanted to piss him off any way I could, so I never went to a gym or anything outside of when I had to train with him."

"It still seems like kind of a low number," Hiruma stated, blowing a gum bubble.

"The coaches don't generally do the strength training," you explained, "They teach us how to fight and hold our own in the ring. Getting stronger is pretty much up to us on our own time. Which I usually don't have a lot of."

"Hn."

After that not much was said between you and Hiruma, other than him pretty much giving you orders on what to do. Seeing that the training would actually benefit you, you decided to do along with it and ignore him bossing you around.

~Time lapse~

Morning practice time was finally over, and you returned to the clubhouse to grab your bag with your uniform stuffed in it.

'Man, I'm already sore! It's gonna be a pain trying to hide it from everyone...'

You left the clubhouse and walked to the school with everyone else, since that was where they were headed anyway. Once there, you split off from the group after saying your good-byes and went to a bathroom so you could change into your school uniform. Actually, you considered yourself lucky that you were even allowed inside while not wearing it, but you figured that that had something to do with Hiruma being there. Oh well. Got you out of trouble, at least. Changing your clothes was a bit of a pain, though; your legs, arms, back, neck, and even abs were getting more sore and stiff by the minute.

'Now all I need is a history test, and my brain'll hurt just as much!'

The bell rang as soon as you walked out of the stall, which meant that, unfortunately, you had to maneuver your way through the crowded halls to get to your class. You were pretty sure you did a good job in not letting your physical discomfort show, though, because nobody asked about it.

~Lunch~

You'd recieved a message from Hiruma telling you to be at the field during lunch, so when the bell rang you grabbed your bento and headed to the bench next to the track. You were thankful that today his message wasn't sent via terrified fellow student, but instead as a text, which was probably the only good thing that would ever come out of that guy knowing your number.

'On the other hand,' you thought, dead-panning, 'He now has the ability to harass me whenever he wants.'

Once you were within eyesight of the field, you paused for a moment to assess the situation. Kurita was slamming into the tackle dummy, shouting something that you could barely make out as "funnuraba!", Monta was catching footballs being shot at him from crazy angles from a machine, Hiruma was the one shooting said balls at crazy angles while firing a machine gun, and Eyeshield 21 was doing some exercise involving a rope ladder.

'Eyeshield...' you thought, thinking back to when he'd called out to you that morning, 'I wonder...'

"Oi!" Hiruma shouted, spotting you, "Get your ass down here, Damn Cat!" Sighing, you complied. You'd gotten used to Hiruma's bossy attitude and recognized that it was just how he did things; bitching at him would only make it worse.

"You called, almighty Dark Liege?" you asked, plopping onto the bench and removing the cloth from around your bento.

"Kekekeke!" he snickered, moving to stand next to the bench, "Finally catching on, eh?"

"Hey, whatever floats your boat, guy."

**Bang!**

'Ah, gunfire. I must've pissed him off.' Looking up, your suspicion was confirmed upon staring upon the visage of a pissed off, spikey-haired blonde that was three inches taller than you and weilding a machine gun. 'Yep. Pissed him off. Score one for me so far today. Now it's tied.'

"Che. Whatever. Here," he thrust a paper at you, "Answer these, since I don't have time to interrogate you."

Looking at the paper, you quickly saw that it was a series of questions with space in between for answers. "Wow," you stated, "So what dirt you've already dug up on me isn't enough, huh?" You got nothing but a cackle in reply, so you sighed and put the paper on the bench next to you so you could eat, watching the boys train as you ate. Of course, Kyuri showed up shortly after you did and sat right in front of you looking up with his cutest face.

"Mooch," you said teasingly, reaching down to scratch behind his ears. He let out a chitter of pleasure before setting his gaze pointedly on your lunch. Instead of feeding him from your food, you used the lid of your bento box and put some cat kibble that you brought into it. The gray cat looked down at the small pile of food and didn't even bother sniffing it before giving you a look that could've said "Surely you jest!". "Oh, yeah right, you're so deprived," you said, rolling your eyes, "I'm starting to think you're getting just a little to used to all the sashimi I bring you." The feline continued to stare at you as if you had almost offended him, but after returning his gaze with one of your own that clearly said that was what he was getting, he gave up and began eating his lunch. Hearing a noise, you looked up to see the team heading in your direction for the benches. 'I must've missed Hiruma giving them a break.' You stuffed the paper Hiruma gave you into your pocket as Sena and Monta sat on the same bench you were on, Sena next to you on your left, and Monta next to him.

"Ne, Arakaki-san," Monta called, leaning forward to look at you past Sena, "Are you wanting to join the football team?"

"First," you said, turning to your underclassmen friend, "Can you please stop calling me by my last name? I hate it, and it annoys me to be associated with it. And, to answer your question no, I'm not planning on playing football."

"Really?" Sena asked, swallowing a bite of his lunch, "Why are you training? I thought you were gonna join, too."

You froze in mid-bite at Sena's question. 'Shit! Think fast, think fast; how am I gonna answer that?'

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Hm, this one seemed kinda short. Oh well, better than nothing! R&R please, much appreciated!


	20. Chapter 18

What's up, people? Here's chapter 18, hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to the people that reviewed and added this story to their favorites!

BTW, for any of you that might care, I have yet to hear any news from the person who said they'd draw a picture of Rai about the progress of said picture, but I'll post a link up here when they're done! Also, I'm STILL looking for a plot beta... I don't care how good your spelling and whatnot is.

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**Chapter 18**

"Uh... I... I'm trying to get a little more fit!" you blurted, "I've... um... been on a small diet for a while, and I figured some exercise would do some good!" As soon as you finished the sentence you knew it was probably one of the dumbest excuses you could've come up with, and the looks you received from Hiruma and Kyuri didn't help convince you otherwise. Thankfully, the bell rang for the end of lunch, so you were spared from further questioning.

~After school~

"The best damn thing you could think of was 'I'm on a diet'?" Hiruma jeered, looking down at you with a smirk.

"They bought it, didn't they?"

"Only because their stupid."

You smiled slightly. "Hn. Oh, and I don't have time for practice after school. I have to go to work."

Walking toward the gate, you gave a sloppy wave over your shoulder without looking back at the blond devil. Because of this, you missed the intense stare he gave you as he watched you leave, and once you turned a corner at the entrance of the school, Hiruma blinked, blew a gum bubble, and turned away, heading toward the football field.

You were completely exhausted. It was the day before your fight, and throughout the week you'd been so horribly busy in raining with both Hiruma and Coach, going to work, and working-out at the gym that you could barely think. Unfortunately but inevitably, your grades were starting to suffer from the neglect you were inflicting upon your homework.

'Che, how am I going to make it through school at this rate if I have to constantly keep up this schedule?' you thought as you finished brushing your teeth. After that, you grabbed your school bag and headed to the door with Kyuri hot on your heels.

"Sorry cat," you muttered, looking down at him groggily and stopping him with your foot, "Stay here today." The look that cat gave you couldn't have been any worse if you were dropping him on a curb and leaving him there. Closing and locking your door behind you, you muttered to yourself, "Guilt trip. Wonderful start to any day..."

~Lunch period~

Dragging yourself up the stairs, you attempted to alleviate some of the tiredness in your eyes by gently rubbing them, but that only made you want to drop and sleep where you were even more. You sighed.

Sunlight struck your face and all but blinded you for a moment as you pushed the door open. Walking forward as your eyes adjusted, you barely registered the fact that Hiruma was already there. He took on look at you and raised an eyebrow, immediately noticed your slouched shoulders and heavily drooping eyes.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I haven't been sleeping regularly lately," you replied, "Now hurry up and ask you question. As soon as I sit down I'll probably be completely out."

However, as you walked past him toward the storage shed, Hiruma stayed silent and simply stood there, quietly observing you. You were in no mood to question his uncharacteristic lack of insults and continued making your way to the shed. Upon reaching your destination, you slumped down, leaned to the side against the wall, and closed your eyes. You were asleep in an instant.

"Che, damn idiot," Hiruma muttered, looking somewhat annoyed. He wanted to just leave, but he knew that the roof was where the hoodlums hung out to ditch class; despite his harshness and demonic reputation, he wasn't inhuman enough to leave you there knowing that some scumbag(s) would show up at some point.

"Oi, wake up, damn cat!" he growled, walking up to you. When he got no response he became even more irritate and quickly closed the distance between him and you with a few long-legged strides. Placing a hand on your shoulder to begin the process of rudely shaking you awake, he was about to yell at you, when he stopped. The dark circles around your eyes were pretty prominent, and you were slightly paler than usual. He also noticed how you didn't react in the slightest when he laid his hand on your shoulder.

'For such a light sleeper, she's pretty dead to the fucking world,' he observed, giving your shoulder another light shake. Of course, you barely twitched. Sighing, Hiruma straightened and looked around awkwardly until his gaze fell upon your school bag. Wondering why you would've bothered bringing it with you during lunch, he slipped it off your shoulder and sat with his back leaning against the storage shed. He glanced at the artwork that adorned the front before opening it; there was a cat batting at something above its head, a snarling wolf, an eastern-style dragon outline that resembled brush strokes, and a burning lily.

A few minutes later Hiruma had riffled through the entire bag, and had deduced the reasons for you lugging it all the way to the roof. First of all, it contained your lunch, and secondly, the third year had discovered several assignments that were unfinished. Upon further snooping, he also found that several of your assignments (finished or otherwise) had several mistakes on them.

'If this is anything to go buy, her grades are undoubtedly starting to fall.'

Lastly, aside from all the miscellaneous stuff, Hiruma also found the sheet of questions he had given you several days ago. Hiruma fixed his sharp gaze upon you analytically, and opened the folded paper and began to read it.

~Time lapse~

**Ding don don dooonn...**

"Nnnn," you groaned groggily, slowly bringing yourself back into the realm of the living. Loosing a huge and rather unlady-like yawn, you looked around for a few seconds in confusion. Your being in a state of sleepy stupor inhibited your ability to quickly recall the location and reason behind your nap.

"You're on the school roof, dumb-ass, in case you were wondering."

"GAH!"

Spastically jumping about a foot in the air, you whirled around to see Hiruma sitting near you with his laptop resting on his legs and a gum bubble sticking out of his mouth.

"I don't make a habit of sleeping on the school roof," you commented dryly, rubbing your head; you'd managed to smack it on the wall during your spazz attack of surprise. "I couldn't help being confused."

"Your grades are dropping a little."

'Talk about subject change,' you thought dully, still trying to control the little blush of embarrassment on your otherwise indifferent countenance. You determined that you were failing after seeing the continuing smirk Hiruma had plastered on his face. You sighed, then scooched a little closer to him to see the screen better. "Let me see." Of course, Hiruma wasn't just going to be cooperative about it and refused to lean to the side to let you look. Shooting him a small glare, you slammed your shoulder into his, thereby forcing him to lean. Ignoring his loud protests, you examined the computer screen.

'He's right,' you thought dejectedly, 'They're starting to slip a little.'

Your math and history classes were suffering the most, having dropped an entire grade and a half, which didn't surprise you; they were the two least interesting classes you had.

You stood up and stretched, grabbing your school bag. 'That sucks!'

~After school~

Your day at school had been as uneventful as it could be; nothing special happening during class, and the same-old-same-old at lunch. You were now walking out the school entrance, on your way home to feed Kyuri before you went to meet Coach. For reasons you didn't care to bother trying to figure out, Hiruma was following you, even after you told him that you weren't going straight to the train station; he knew today was the day of your fight, so you didn't have to explain.

**Chck!**

"Kyuri?"

"MRRR-rooooooow!"

You sighed as you entered your apartment, knowing immediately where that hopeless cat was. Leaving the door open since Hiruma had decided (against you insistent protests) to actually follow you inside, you went straight for the bathroom door, which, lo and behold, was closed. Rubbing the back of your head sheepishly and reached for the knob. Unfortunately, today just had to be one of Kyuri's days...

"Sheesh..."

The damn thing was _locked._

"Mrrow?"

Hiruma walked behind you and looked at you and the door quizzically. Pointedly ignoring him, you jiggled the knob a few times, which only resulted in another caterwaul from Kyuri.

"... Do I wanna know?" the quarterback asked, rapping a finger on the door for emphasis. You sweat-dropped.

"He shuts himself in the bathroom sometimes," you replied, and turned the knob again, "...No..."

"What?"

"I do NOT have time for this."

"What?"

"He _locked _the door."

There was a silence after that; one of disbelief from Hiruma and one of slowly increasing rage from you. And then, "...You're serious. Kekekeke, what the hell's with that cat of yours?"

"This is seriously NOT the time to be amused by this, Hiruma," you chided as your eye twitched. Another cackle was his only reply. This, coupled with the facts that you sucked at picking locks and that your hairpins were IN the bathroom did nothing to ease your aggravation. You slammed your forehead onto the door with a groan as you tried to think of what to do.

"Che," Hiruma snorted, reaching around you and brushing your hand aside, "Move."

Your curiosity outweighed any annoyance toward his rudeness that you felt, so you took a small step aside and watched as Hiruma began picking the lock with a wire. Not even ten seconds later he swung the door open and out flew a mewling streak of gray, which landed right in your arms and proceeded to snuggle against your cheeks. "Thanks," you muttered, still staring at the doorknob. 'That was disturbingly fast, although I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Ah well, time to get the ball rolling.' Turning, you headed toward your kitchen, allowing Kyuri to drop down onto the floor from your arms.

"How long is it, exactly, until you have to meet your coach, anyway?" Hiruma inquired, speaking over the light clatter of cat food landing into Kyuri's plastic bowl. Standing upright you glanced at the digital clock on the stove and replied, "I leave in about ten minutes." **  
**


	21. Chapter 19

Okay, first off I'd like to say that I'm reeeeeally sorry for the huge wait on this. Also, thank you to the very many people that added this to their favorites/watch list.

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"Right," Coach muttered, scratching his head, "We all know why _you're _here, Rai, but," he looked to the quarterback standing next to you "What about _you, _boy?"

"He followed me," you said, answering for Hiruma, "I've already tried getting him to leave, but you can see how that went. He wants to know where it's gonna be." Looking back toward Hiruma again, Coach raised an eyebrow quizically. "Why?"

"Curiousity," Hiruma answered with a smirk, "You asked me to let her train with my football team in the hopes that she'd actually improve," ('What does he mean by ACTUALLY?') "So I want to see whether or not it was just a fucking waste of time. You can't videotape the match, and there's no god-damn way in hell I'll accept just being told how it went!"

"So you're just gonna waltz right in there like you own the joint?" you asked, face smoothing over into an emotionless mask, "You don't want people seeing you in there, Hiruma. You're an asshole and somewhat of a punk with a lot of connections, but even you don't want that kind of reputation, and you won't be able to blackmail your way out of it."

"Che," Hiruma scoffed, sending you a look that practically screamed 'Dumbass!', "Who the hell do you think you're talking to, Damn Cat?"

**Snirk!**

You and Hiruma turned toward your coach -you with your mouth open as you were about to yell at the blond- to see the guy holding back a small fit of laugher.

"The hell's so funny, Fucking Geezer?"

"That nickname you gave her fits pretty well," Coach replied, then straighened out and asked, "And what's with what you just called _me?_"

"He comes up with a nickname for everyone," you replied matter-of-factly, "From what I've heard, they're all like that."

"Well then why's yours so mild?"

"It's wasn't always."

"Ah, so the people he likes get nicer nicknames?"

"Uh, I don't think that's it, on both accounts. His friend's nickname's just as bad as yours."

"Hmmm..."

"Oi!" Hiruma exclaimed, "I'm still here, dumbasses!"

You and Coach both turned back to the quarterback standing next to you, and upon seeing the peeved look on Hiruma's face you let out a snicker of your own. Which, in turn, earned you a glare from said teenager and a literal ass-kicking accompanied by, "The hell's so damn funny?"

Of course, you weren't about to take such blatant rudeness laying down, so you retaliated, thus starting a rather animated arguement between you and Hiruma. It didn't last very long, however, as it was interrupted by Coach's hearty laughter. "Hahaha! Alright, children, that's enough! We don't want to draw any attention to ourselves now. And Boy," he added looking at Hiruma, who twitched angrily at the nickname, "You'll stay with me when Rai leaves; I'll get you in there somehow."

"Speaking of leaving," you stated, voice and face smoothing over once again, "I need to go wait for the ride." With that you turned and started walking away, waving over your shoulder lazily. Once you were out of earshot, Coach turned to Hiruma with a smirk.

"Well aren't you two just _cuuuuute_!"

"What the HELL are you talking about?"

You, Hiruma, and Coach were in a small room waiting for the match to start. There were a few real fights scheduled for the day as well as yours, and since nobody paid to watch a newbie like yourself, you'd be going after everything else was over. At the moment you were sitting on a bench getting your hands bandaged by Coach while Hiruma leaned up against the wall in a corner.

"I've got a bad feeling," you said finally, looking pointedly at Coach. He caught on immediately.

"How long ago was your last dream?" he asked, tone serious. Hiruma looked between the two of you with interest.

"The most recent one was two nights ago. They're all pretty much the same. I hope the medical staff is good today."

Coach sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose in worry. Before he could reply, though, Hiruma beat him to the punch.

"What the hell're you talking about?"

"Funny," Coach said, smirk on his face, "You asked the exact same question when Rai left."

"You didn't fucking answer me then, either!"

You looked at them in confusion. "What're _you _talking about?"

Coach sighed. "Anyway, I need to check a few things. Boy, you can finish her hands, right?"

"Yeah, 'cause they do this all the time in _football,_ Coach."

"Really?"

Cue facepalm. Coach then walked out of the room to go take care of whatever business it was he had to do, although you had an inkling he was going to try to get info on your opponent. Hiruma sat down on a wood chair that was also in the room and watched as you proceeded to wrap you hand. You knew he wanted an explanation for what had just happened, but you didn't particularly feel like giving him one, so you ignored him. Which resulted in an awkward silence between the two of you. Of course, Pixie Boy wasn't just gonna drop the subject.

"So what the hell was that all about?" he demanded, sending you a scrutinizing glare.

"Nothing that concerns you, Hiruma." The quarterback's glare transformed into one of annoyance. Seeing this you sent him a glare of your own and snapped, "If you want to know so badly then go blackmail it out of someone. That's your specialty, right? Finding answers? So please, let me keep what little dignity I have for a little long - Ouch!" During your rant you'd accidentally yanked the bandage so that it felt like it almost crushed your hand. Then suddenly -

**Whack!**

- right upside your head, accompanied by, "Idiot." Before you could finish rubbing the side of your head and commence throwing a smack of your own Hiruma' s way, you heard the sound of the chair being dragged across the floor. Looking up, you were surprised to find that Hiruma had dragged the chair in front of you and had sat in it.

"Now what?" you asked, seemingly worn-out from your ranting.

"Hold out your hand, Damn Cat."

'What could he possibly want now?' Casting the boy a dubious glance, you held your hand out to him before turning your head to look pensively at the smooth, concrete wall. Seconds later a start of surprise wracked through your body when you felt him take hold of your hand and startfinishing the wrapping."D-don't bother, I can do it..."

"At the rate you were going," Hiruma interrupted, "You'd have cracked every bone in your hand before the first match. Now shut up."

So you did, but you turned away with a small, exasperated huff and pout and an ever-so-slight blush on your cheeks. After that a silence lapsed between the two of you and Hiruma quickly finished the bandaging, moving on to your other hand.

'He didn't do too bad,' you thought, examining your hands when they were finished. "Thanks," you said, then stood, stretched a bit, and turned toward the blond. "I'm going to find Coach and see what he's been up to. Since you're here, I guess you can just do whatever you want."

~~Time Lapse~~

Your search for your coach had been fruitless, and out of sheer boredom you decided to meander about town to kill some time. Hiruma had decided to follow you and for once you didn't bother to question his reason, mostly because he helped you keep your mind off things. About an hour later you returnedd to the warehouse and to your little room, where Coach seemed to be waiting for you. He looked at you seriously as you came in and said, "Your match starts in ten."

A sudden wave of anxiety hit you and you stopped dead in your tracks, his words having hit you like a train. You quickly surpressed it though, and closed your eyes, letting your head dip down a little.

"What is she doing?" Hiruma asked, turning to Coach. The older man looked over at Hiruma for a moment before answering.

"Switching over," he started, scratching his chin, "Is the best way I can describe it. She said you saw her last sparring match; no boubt you noticed a change in her demeanor? The way she carried herself, the look in her eyes, her aura itself?" Hiruma didn't say anything in reply, so Coach continued. "I won't tell you all the details -partly because I don't know all of them, but also because it's not my place- but to put it shortly, she's getting herself ready. Just wait and see."

Meanwhile you were still standing there, as if you hadn't heard the conversation at all. Which was pretty much true. A few moments later Coach and Hiruma noticed a change, as if a totally different person were standing in front of them. Your stance was looser like you were ready to spring at anything that might become a threat.

"Rai."

Turning, your now cold, harsh narrowed eyes met the worried brown orbs of your coach. After hesitating for a moment in forming his words he finished, "Be careful."

The grin you sent back toward your coach left even Hiruma taken aback. It was a large, chesire-like smile full of... full of what? Hiruma had never really seen anything like it. He could only describe it to be one a wolf might bear on its countenence right before it got ready to tear the throat from an enemy that made its blood boil with rage. As a smile that seemed to say, "Don't worry, I'll only maim him a little." Then you turned and wordlessly walked out the door, heading toward the arena.

Hiruma turned to Rai's coach. "What the hell just happened?" he demanded. He found himself actually having to put an effort into remaining calm and it surprised him, since he didn't really know why he was upset in the first place.

"I told you already," the older man replied, "She got herself ready for what she has to face."

"And _that's _how she's been trained to do it?" the blond boy snapped sharply, glaring at the coach.

"Watch your mouth when jumping to conclusions, Boy! Of course I didn't teach her that; I'd never. No," Coach added sadly, "That was the man that trained her before me, the one that found her when she was on the streets. Now, let's get out there and watch. You'll have to ask her yourself if you want more answers."

With that they left the room, Coach closing the door behind them and watching Hiruma walk ahead and, despite everything, found himself smiling.

'Rai, you chose one _hell _of an oddball, didn't you?'


	22. Chapter 20

Um, hey people! I know, it's been for-fricking-ever, and I have no excuse except that I was lazy. But I have good news! I now have internet as long as I sit in the parking lot in my mom's car, so maybe now I'll be more inclined to update. Thanks to everyone that reviewed and added this and/or me to some list of theirs, I appreciate it!

Also, **MystryMeat **is now my plot beta (yay!), although I would like to apologize you, because I haven't sent you a message since September. I'm a horrible person, I know...

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, without further a-do, I present to you chapter 20! Please enjoy!

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They got out in the audience just as the match started. Hiruma sat right behind Coach, so they had seats pretty close to the ring. Hiruma saw immediately that Rai was at a huge disadvantage; her opponent's size and power by far exceeded hers. She was preoccupied dodging his devastating punches than landing any of her own.

' "_I hope the medical staff is good today," '_ rang through Hiruma's head and he clenched his teeth in frustration.

Dodge. Dodge. Dodge dodge dodge swing, miss.

This match was rigged and you very well knew it.

Kick.

You'd witnessed several inauguration matches before, and none of them had ever been so unfairly matched.

Block his kick. Pain.

You couldn't say it surprised you, though; you knew they never wanted you as a fighter in the first place. By nature women are weaker and less aggressive than men, and that doesn't make nearly as much of an entertaining show.

Dodge dodge. Block, pain, punch. Blocked. Anger.

'I've got to beat this guy, it's all I've got right now! If I lose this, I can kiss school and probably my apartment good-bye!'

Fear. Kick, and finally a hit! Taking advantage of your opponents moment of unbalance you lunged toward him, completely letting yourself go all out on him. Coach and Hiruma observed silently, watching you unleash a flurry of kicks and punches. Of course, getting his ass handed to him ticked off the guy you were fighting, which in turn made him start losing it, too. But you were too far out of it to notice.

Kick kick punch kick punch punch punch punch. Kick, blocked.

Your collected, logical, and otherwise passive self had abandoned you and substituted itself with something feral, impulsive, and aggressive.

Punch punch punch punch punch kick kick punch. Then you were suddenly seeing stars, and there was an intense pain somewhere on your head. Turning, you managed to catch a glimpse of something in your periferal vision, and it was coming at you too quickly to dodge.

'Shit!'

Darkness...

Rai's barrage had her opponent on his toes more than he was at the start of the fight, but she still wasn't landing very many hits since the guy continued to block most of them. Hiruma grew more and more agitated by the minute, knowing that Rai was definitely not thinking clearly and was becoming too reckless.

'Damn Cat!' he thought angrily, gritting his teeth, 'Pull yourself together!'

And then it happened. As Rai sent another punch toward the man, Hiruma saw something change in his expression and immediately knew something bad was going to happen. Instead of blocking Rai's punch the guy deflected it, which sent her a little off-balance, and as she was righting herself he slammed his elbow into the side of her head and sent her reeling. Hiruma had to admit that even though she was just barely able to stand, he was impressed that she was still able to. But he knew better than to let himself think she might have a chance of winning now; now he just hoped it would end soon. And it did, with Rai receiving another blow to the head from her opponents strong, calloused fist, sending her flying to the edge of the ring where she landed and lay completely motionless.

Hiruma stood, his gaze glued to Rai's still form.

'Damn it, do _something!_'

The referee called the match, and the guy turned and headed off the platform.

' Twitch a fucking finger, hell!'

The paramedic team rushed over and examined Rai.

"Follow me, Boy."

Hiruma turned to see Rai's coach standing and looking at him solumnly and, casting another glance toward Rai, walked behind the older man. "They'll take her to the infirmary, so we'll have to wait in the prep room," he explained, leading Hiruma to the room they were in before, "When she's awake, I'll get her and bring her here, but you'll have to stay in here with her while I go take care of a few things."

Your awareness of the world came back to you slowly and, unfortunately for you, the first thing to return to you was the sensation of pain. One big-ass pain in your head, to be specific.

"Finally awake, Damn Cat?" someone next to you asked, although they sounded a little far away due to your lack of total consciousness. You groaned and slowly lifted your hand to rest on your forehead, then slowly opened your eyes. Thankfully, you weren't lying directly underneath a light like people in all those cliche action movies, so your eyes met grey ceiling. "Interesting how well that nickname suits you so well," they continued, and you realized it was Hiruma that had spoken.

"How so?" you slurred groggily, holding your head.

"With nine lives and the devil's luck on your side you're still asking that?"

"Luck?" you laughed bitterly, looking over at Hiruma. He was seated in a chair set next to an infirmary bed you lay in that had been wheeled into your prep room.

"Che," he scoffed, looking at you like it was the most obvious thing on the planet, "Of all the injuries you could've easily come out of that with, you only have a concussion and some bruised ribs."

You blinked and turned back to staring at the ceiling, forlorn contemplation settling on your countenence. How were you going to pay your apartment bills? Your job took care of school tuition, but the money from being in fighting had always managed to cover the other essentials. Even another part-time job wouldn't be quite enough to pay for everything, and you'd need the school's permission, anyway. Going up to the principal asking to work a second job would look too suspicious, and full-time was out of the question for a high-school student. 'What am I going to do?'

"You look pathetic."

Turning back to Hiruma, you shot him a glare. "Why are you still here?" you demanded, "You've seen what you came to see and could've left at any time."

Before the quaterback could answer, the door opened and revealed a rather pissed-off/solemn coach. His gaze immediately fell on you, and a bit of relief crossed his features as he breathed, "Good, you're finally awake."

Cocking an eyebrow, you looked at him inquizitively. "What do you mean, "finally"? "

"You've been out for the better part of three hours," Hiruma said, also turning toward Coach. "So what happens now?"

"I would've thought that'd have been obvious to you, Hiruma, " you interjected, "I go home; I'm finished here." With that, you slowly lifted yourself up into the sitting position, although you would've given anything just to be able to lie back down. Although they weren't broken, the left side of your ribcage hurt like hell; the incident with your arm felt like a bruise compared to this.

"Rai, stop! You just woke up, let yourself recover a little more before you try going home!"

Your head snapped up and you held Coach's worried gaze with your own of determination. "I'm going home. _Now. _I've got a lot to think about and a cat waiting for me that's probably feeling pretty lonely right now as he tries to get himself out of the bathroom he shut himself in, and I want some peace and quiet for a while. So, Im leaving, and God help anyone that tries to stop me."

"Kekekekeke!"

"Something funny, Boy?"

"She's got more fucking fire in her than she likes to let on!" the boy stated, looking at you in amusement with a huge devilish grin on his face.

"Che," you scoffed, sliding off the bed, "I'm getting changed." Walking into a small ajoining room, you closed the door and leaned against it for a moment, clutching your side.

'Shit, this sucks!' you thought, thinking about the trip home, 'This is gonna be a long night...'

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Hm, this seemed kinda short. Oh well.


	23. Chapter 21

Hey people! Nothing really extraordinary to say. Although, I discovered how interesting it is to visit the "Traffic" tab yesterday. XD Also, give a big round of a applause to Mystrymeet, who is my plot beta and has done a fabulous job in helping me with this chapter.

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"So..." you started, somewhat irritably and looking to your left, "Why are you here again?"

You were, at the moment, sitting in a cab heading toward your home - which was odd enough, since you always took a train - with Hiruma sitting next to you, who was the reason why the cab was going all the way to your house, after the driver got blackmailed. His unexpected presence coupled with the fact that he'd just got right in the car when it arrived had done nothing to alleviate you frustration.

"Cut a deal with your coach," he answered, typing away on his computer. You didn't have to be worried about being over-heard by the driver, since he was listening to an mp3 player.

"What kind of deal?" you asked suspiciously. Truth be told you were snagging any opportunity you could find to keep your mind from wondering over to your sudden lack of a second job, even if said opportunity was making small talk with Hiruma.

"Kekekeke! Wouldn't _you _like to know." You sighed. "Are you going to avoid _all _of my questions like this?"

"Are you going to keep _asking _questions?" he retorted, glancing at you before continuing his computer work, "You're abnormally talkative."

"Point taken," you sighed, and turned to the window. Unfortunately, nothing passing by the glass could keep you from wondering about your immediate future and what to do about it, so you contented yourself with staring down at your hands resting on your lap. This lead to your mind wandering back to your current predicament. At first you considered asking Hiruma to pull some strings so that the school would overlook you having a second job, but you decided against that; you didn't want to have to owe him any favors.

'Well, I could always forge a note of permission from the school,' you thought, 'That'll be good enough for an employer, and the school wouldn't know about it.'

"The hell's going on in that head of yours, Arakaki?"

You started and looked up at Hiruma, who had apparently finished whatever he had been doing on his laptop. Having been so engrossed in your own thoughts you'd failed to notice that he'd been staring at you for the past several minutes.

"A half-baked plan," you replied. You figured that since the only real dirt Hiruma had on you had just been washed away, you didn't need to feel obligated to cooperate with his incessant questioning. Although, you did notice a lack of malice or mischief in his energy that was always there before, which you found odd.

"Che," he scoffed, eyebrow twitching slightly, "Even the fucking monkey could see that much. What've you got so far?"

"What's it to you?" you retorted calmly, looking away from him. After a moment you added, "No, really, why would you care? Your blackmail against me has become useless, and what I do now doesn't have anything to do with it, anyway."

"What's it to you?" Hiruma parroted with the hint of a smug smirk.

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine first," you replied, a smirk of your own crossing your features.

More silence lapsed between the two of you, and you were about to give up on thinking he might actually agree to the proposal when...

"Che," he scoffed, lacing his fingers and putting his hands behind his head as he looked forward, "You're useful to my team."

"That's all I'm going to get out of you, isn't it?," you asked, then sighed and added, "To answer your question, I think forging a note from the school would be the easiest way to avoid suspicion in me getting another job. Something like that wouldn't be new to me, I just need to see a copy of the form the school would use. Or steal one."

"Ah, that's right!" The blond said, smiling again, "You have to pretend you're still living with your parents! After all, if the school found out about that, well..."

"Great, I forgot you knew about that..." you muttered, knowing that the fiend sitting next to you still had power over you.

~~Time lapse~~

"E-excuse me," the cab driver stuttered, removing an earbud, "W-we've arrived at-t y-your des-stination."

"Thank you," you replied politely, and stepped out of the car. You tried paying the driver, but he simply blanched and begged you not to make him take the money. You had a feeling that the fact that a certain blond guy with an assault rifle was looming behind you had something to do with it, though, and watched in a dead-pan silence as the man sped off at a speed that probably wasn't legal in a parking lot. Then, turning to said assault rifle bearing teen, you asked, "You left your bag in my apartment, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Come get it, then, 'cause I sure as hell am not gonna lug that thing down here."

Going upstairs proved to be a real pain (literally) and you found yourself moving at a noticeably slower pace than usual, but you tried not to show any signs of being hurt in the event some neighbor was walking around. However, by the time you reached the second set of stairs (you lived on the third floor), you'd all but reached your limit.

"Of course, you chose a place that didn't have an elevator," Hiruma commented, looking down at you as you sat down on a step.

"Yeah," you sighed, "but it's the best I can afford. I've got a roof over my head, so I won't complain."

A short while later you made it to your door and, upon opening it, got a bit of a surprise when you saw Kyuri bounding toward you. He stopped just before he went to jump into your arms, though, apparently sensing something was wrong.

Walking forward, you sat down on the couch. Noticing a foreign duffel bag resting next to the coffee table, you called to Hiruma, "What's in this bag, anyway? It looks pretty heavy."

"Guns," he replied gleefully from right behind you. Walking around, he sat next to you and remarked, "You don't decorate much."

"No," you replied simply, fatigue creeping it's way into your voice finally.

"...You didn't plan on staying here long, did you?"

"I never planned on staying anywhere for very long," you answered, glancing at him. You could tell he understood what you meant by the look on his face.

'It's odd,' you thought suddenly, 'His energy feels different than it usually does. Like he's more... relaxed, or something.' Thinking back on that note, you realized that he hadn't been swearing as much as he usually did. You considered bringing the subject up to him, but you felt it would be awkward and stayed silent. Instead, you pulled your contacts container out of your pocket and removed the lenses from your eyes.

"Why the fucking lenses?" Hiruma asked, looking at the container incredulously.

"I don't stand out as much, wearing these," you replied, a hint of sadness interlacing with the exhaustion in your voice. Hiruma noticed this and, surprisingly, dropped the subject. Kyuri carefully hopped onto the couch and curled up between you and Hiruma and closed his eyes, purring softly in content at having company. Hiruma left shortly afterward, and you took a shower and flopped onto the couch, falling asleep almost instantly.

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Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to anyone that reviews!


	24. Chapter 22

Okay, first off I'd like to (again) thank MystryMeet for being such a wonderful beta, and give them credit for a good chunk of this chapter, since they practically rewrote some parts to make it sound so much better! Also, thanks to everyone that left reviews! I like those. X3

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School the next day was pretty much the same as it always was, aside from a few differences. First, you had to leave for school early to accommodate for your slower walking speed. Second, you had to sit out PE for obvious reasons. You thought you wouldn't be able to due to the fact that you hadn't got a doctor's note, but you'd been surprised to find out that it had been taken care of.

"Don't worry, Arakaki," you teacher had said, approaching you at the beginning of the period, "Just sit out for today."

"Huh? Why?"

_ Excuse Arakaki Rai from class for the next three days, or that video goes viral! Ya-ha! _

"O...kaay," you muttered, making a mental note to thank Hiruma later, although his method bothered you a little.

~Lunch~

Sitting under your normal tree, you'd just removed the lid from your bento box when a spray of gunfire interrupted you. Looking up, you saw Hiruma standing in front of the clubhouse entrance, already in his football uniform, with an AK-47 lazily resting on his shoulder as he looked up at you.

"Get the hell down here, Damn Cat!"

"Make me!" you shouted back, readying your chopsticks to eat with.

"Oh?" Hiruma said, more to himself, "Challenge accepted!"

After that everything was to quick for you to register it completely until it was over. you found yourself tied up with a rope, the length of which was slung over Hiruma's shoulder so that he was carrying you like a giant knapsack or something. As your shoulder bounced lightly on Hiruma's back with each step he took (you were slung sideways, dangling from the rope) you looked up at him as best you could and growled, "You know my ribcage still hurts like hell, right?"

"Keep that in mind and come quietly next time," he retorted with a fiendish smirk. Despite his nonchalant tone of voice, you noticed that he started walking a little more lightly.

'Well, that was surprisingly nice of him. Oh, speaking of nice...' "Thanks for threatening the teacher into not making me do PE, by the way."

"Che."

A few minutes later the two of you reached the football field, and you were set down next to a bench and untied, then given your lunch, which you had thought was left behind. "Thanks," you muttered in surprise.

"Alright you fucking slackers!" Hiruma shouted, ignoring you completely, "Get to work!" And he proceeded to yell out instructions.

'Why am I here again?' you wondered, watching the boys in their training and smiling in amusement as they ran from Hiruma's bullets. You didn't really mind, though; it kept your mind off of your troubles, and Mamori was sitting next to you. She provided good conversation, when she wasn't going on about how she was glad Sena was only the secretary because he was too weak and cowardly to do something like actually play.

'Bless your good heart, Mamori,' you thought, 'But God only knows how much of Sena's weakness and cowardice is your fault.' Keeping you mouth shut on the matter and smiling in a friendly manner, you continued watching the practice.

~After school~

"So," you started, turning to Hiruma. He had again decided to accompany you during your walk home, and you no longer cared about his reasons. "I heard you mention something about a game with Sphinxes."

"The Taiyo Sphinx," he replied, speaking around a gum bubble.

"When is it? I want to make sure I don't miss it."

"Kekekeke! Like hell'd I let you!" the blond cackled, looking at you with a fiendish smirk, "The fucking brats pretty much consider you a member of the team, and would start sulking if you didn't show." At this you let a small smile escape your lips. It wasn't unnoticed by Hiruma, but he didn't comment on it.

~After school~

"Are you ever going to tell me why you follow me home so often?" you blurted suddenly, turning back toward him again.

"Hn."

"Thought so. Well, I'm not heading home right now; I've got another job to find." He didn't say anything, but looked at you with an expression of "Yeah, so?" written on his face. You sighed. "You're still going to follow me.'"

"Kekekeke!"

Although it would've been nice if Hiruma had actually _asked _if you minded him accompanying you, you didn't really mind his company. Idle chatter, which was mostly him explaining rules and plays of football since you didn't know them, kept your mind from wandering itself into depression. You weren't sure if he noticed, but you appreciated his cooperation in holding a conversation with you.

By the time you were finished job hunting, it was around 6 pm and getting dark. You had six applications to fill out at home and a veracious appetite that had been worked up as a result of walking around. Looking about for somewhere to eat for cheap, you caught a glimpse of Hiruma and reminded yourself of how surprised you were of Hiruma's good behavior. Even his swearing had noticeably decreased. You teasingly voiced your observation to Hiruma, who not-so-teasingly told you to "shut the hell up".

"C'mon now, Hiruma, " you chimed, grinning at him, "You're so cute when you're behaving like a good boy."

**BANG!**

"Watch it, Damn Cat, or I'll blow you to fucking bits!"

At this point the few people that were left walking the sidewalks were staring at the two of you with wide eyes as they slowly backed away.

"Now now, put the big gun away and as a reward for being _so _good this afternoon, I'll treat you to dinner."

**DODODODODODODON!**

"THAT"S IT!" Hiruma shouted, firing his signature gun at you while you ran ahead. Of course, a chase ensued, and you couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation, with Hiruma cackling maniacally behind you.

"Hahaha, is that so?" you called over your shoulder, a taunting glint in your eye, "Come do something about it, then!"

"GAAAAH!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Haaaa..." you sighed, folding your arms on the table and resting your head on them. You were currently sitting at a table in a restaurant, exhausted and in pain, with Hiruma across from you wearing one of his cocky smirks. A waiter came around shortly asking if either of you wanted anything to drink.

"More water, please," you replied, brandishing the empty water glass that you'd drained as soon as it'd been given to you. Once the guy left, you slowly sat up and grabbed a menu. After a few minutes, you folded it and put it back before resting your head on your forearm. There was a silence between you and Hiruma, but it wasn't awkward like most of the ones before were.

'That's the first time I've seen her truly fucking laugh,' Hiruma thought to himself, watching you intently. You pain wasn't unnoticed by him and it irked him, although he didn't know why so he ignored it for the moment.

"Oi," the blond said, getting your attention, "Now I have to go through the trouble of finding more blackmail on you; talk about being a royal pain in the ass!"

Again, Hiruma didn't miss anything; the immediate glare of almost anger that brought a familiar smirk to his lips, and the flash of despair that almost wiped that smirk clean off his face. He'd seen fear in plenty of his victim's faces and found it highly amusing, but what he saw in your eyes for that fraction of a second was something different, more intense and pained.

'What the hell is she hiding?'

It was about 9 o'clock when you finally got home. Of course, Kyuri was locked in the bathroom (again).

"Geez, Kyuri, could you be any more hopeless?" you said, opening the door. You gray little bundle of retardation flew out of the bathroom and leaped into your arms, purring loudly and nuzzling your cheeks. Walking into the living room, you sat down onto the couch.

'How long will it take him to find out?' you wondered, a knot steadily worming itself into your chest. If he questioned anyone from your childhood Hiruma would immediately find out about the incident with Shiori, your former classmate's dog.

Of course, you knew neither he nor anyone from back then believed it was witchcraft now, but they'd still think you had a major role in the dog's death. 'They think I killed that poor dog,' you thought miserably, your throat constricting, 'And he'll think the same. That'll be the _dirt _he'll scoop up on me.

What if he tells someone?' By nature you weren't one to desire the approval and/or recognition of your peers, you'd rather they left you alone for the most part. It didn't bother you that they might forget your name; it didn't bother that they might forget you existed. But to go through the anguish of going to school everyday amongst scores of people that hated you, judged you and made it quite clear that you weren't welcome over some misunderstanding was something that even a such an introvert like yourself couldn't bear.

You held Kyuri to your chest tightly and, for the first time in years, allowed the tears to fall freely as you quietly wept, not even bothering to try suppressing the sobs that caused more pain in your torso.


	25. Chapter 23

Oh my fucking god I'm so sorry this took to long! I will give you the exact words I gave to my beta: "Long story short, shit happened, no internet access, now I have it."

Also, Kuray999 did some absolutely LOVELY drawings of Rai. I will include the links in this chapter, and also put them on my profile. So go check 'em out! I apologize for the gaps, but without them the first part of the address would keep getting deleted...

h t t p : / j u - z . d e v i a n t a r t .com/art/Rai-Arakaki-253422415  
h t t p : / j u - z . d e v i a n t a r t .com/art/Rai-Arakaki-coloured-254196507

Enjoy the REALLY late chapter!

* * *

You awoke feeling completely exhausted, something that always happened after you cried. You were also stiff and cramped due to the fact that you'd fallen asleep curled up in a ball.

You could tell today was going to be a good one. Sighing, you stretched as many of the kinks out of your joints as you could and got in the shower.

Since it was a weekend, you didn't have to wear your uniform. Instead, you wore a pair of denim shorts with a light leather belt along with a lime green girl t shirt with a black line drawing of an eastern dragon on the side.

Heading to the kitchen from the bathroom, you opened a draw, grabbed the can opener, and proceeded to open some cat food.

" 'Bout fucking time you got out!"

**THUD!**

"Kekekeke!"

You whirled to face your dining table, where Hiruma was sitting casually with his head tilted to the side, having dodged the can opener you'd reflexively flung at him, which had harmlessly hit the wall and dropped to the floor. Well, harmlessly in that it didn't hit him, but now there was a dent in the wall you'd have to fix. You sighed, then glared at Hiruma.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, breaking into my house?"

"I _think _I'm telling you to hurry your ass up. You're coming with me. Now."

"I haven't even eaten yet!"

"Eat when we get there!"

"No."

You crossed your arms and glared defiantly at Hiruma, who in turn narrowed his eyes and glared back. After a few moments of a rather tense silence, Kyuri finally broke the tension by standing up and placing his paws on your thigh, meowing pleadingly. 'Oh yeah, I forgot to feed him.'

Sighing, you looked back to Hiruma. "Would you toss me the can opener?" Hiruma leaned back and looked to where the can opener lay on the floor, turned back to you, and smirked. Picking up on the evil vibe emanating from him you braced yourself for whatever he was going to throw at you; which turned out to be the can opener.

The quarterback reached down and grabbed the device, then hurled the thing right at your head. Thankfully you were able to dodge and grab it before it put another dent in your wall.

"You psychotic son of a bitch!" you growled, roughly opening the cat food and slamming it into Kyuri's bowl.

"Kekekekeke!"

Whirling round, you stormed toward Hiruma. "Look. You can't just break into my home whenever you feel like it and tell me that I'm going with you to where ever the hell it is you plan on going!" By now you were had reached Hiruma and leaned closer to him, "The former offense is illegal and the latter is rude and annoying. I'm tired, I'm in pain, I'm pressed for time in getting another job, and I'm NOT in the mood to deal with your threats! So... Wha-?"

**Thmph!**

You found yourself with your back to the wall looking up at a rather intimidating-at-the-moment Hiruma, who was glaring down at you furiously. Obviously, you'd managed to piss him off. Slamming his hands on the wall on both sides of you he snarled, "I ain't askin' you to pull an all-nighter or train with the team! You can turn in those fucking job apps later, and I haven't threatened you so far today! We're going to Taiyou High, so get your ass moving 'cause if I'm late it's on you fucking head!"

'He's really angry,' you thought nervously. The anger you were picking up on was almost stifling, and the fact that he had you backed up against the wall didn't help soothe your anxiety over the situation. You felt yourself slipping into your fight or flight state of mind as your eyes and pupils widened. 'Shit...!'

'It's happening again,' Hiruma thought, noticing the change. He managed to keep himself from tensing up in an attempt to keep you calm, as he could see you were starting to struggle with it. 'How the fuck am I gonna keep her from going berserk?'

"T-Taiyou?" you stuttered, realization slowly seeping into your mind.

"Yeah," Hiruma replied, his voice now even.

"The game against the Sphinx..." It hit you; that was why he was so impatient with you! In his own, messed up way he was just making sure you kept your word that you'd watch and if he was late then all hell would break loose. You calmed yourself down and looked at Hiruma, who was now staring at you intently. "S-sorry," you said sheepishly, looking down, "I... forgot, I guess."

"I hadn't noticed," was his sarcastic reply.

"Well, let's get going then," you sighed, lightly grabbing his forearm to hint that he should move. He looked at your hand incredulously but seemed to get the hint, as he moved out of your way, shaking his arm free of your grip.

"Che, weren't you just complaining about not getting your breakfast?" he retorted, smirking.

"Che, weren't _you _just complaining about not being late?"

Hiruma's smirk turned into a sharp-toothed grin as he turned toward the door. Saying your good-byes to Kyuri, who was stuffing his face, you followed the tall blond out the door, locking it behind you. "Seriously though," you started as the two of you exited the building, "Sneaking into someone's house and scaring the hell out of them first thing in the morning isn't the best way of getting on their good side."

"Who's good side am I trying to get on?"

"... Touch`e."

"Kekekeke!"

You lightly punched your evil companion in the arm. "Shut up! So are we walking there?"

He glanced at you nonchalantly before punching you back. "We're stopping by Deimon to get the others first."

"I see," you replied, rubbing your arm; he'd hit you harder. So, of course, you hit him back. Again. And harder.

~~Time lapse~~

**DONDONDONDONDONDON!**

"Get your fucking ass back here, Damn Cat!"

"Hahaha! Put your gun away first!" you called back running away from a very irritated Hiruma. By now the two of you had reached the the school's football field, where everyone (except the Huh-Huh Brothers) was waiting. So, of course, they kind of noticed the flashy entrance.

"Hiruma-kun! Stop picking on Rai!" Mamori exclaimed, whipping her broom out of no where and standing in front of said quarterback defensively.

"Outta the way, Fucking Manager!" Hiruma hollered, glaring down at her while brandishing his AK-47. You tuned out their bickering after that when Sena and Monta approached you.

"Ne, Rai," Monta whispered, looking between you and Hiruma, "What'd ya do ta piss him off?"

"Yeah," Sena added, "He's usually nicer toward you."

"Well, in his own, scary way," Monta finished, dead-panning.

"I hit him," you answered.

"HEEEEEEEEH?"

"Not hard at first!" you quickly added, waving your hands in front of you, "It was a playful slug in the arm, then he hit back and it kind of... escalated." Finishing your sentence, you weren't sure if it had actually registered in your friends' minds as they were still staring at you with horrified, dumb-founded expressions.

"Y-you actually p-punched Hiruma-san?" Sena stuttered, face turning blue.

"And you're still, like, alive?" Monta added, eyes wide as saucers.

"...Yeah?"

**DONDONDONDONDON!**

"Hiiiyeeeeh!"

"Mukushiiiiii!"*

"Fucking Midget, Fucking Monkey, move it! The bus comes in twenty minutes!"

"Hai!"**

Smiling, you watched in mild amusement as the two boys ran towards where Hiruma's bullets were directing them. Figuring it'd be better not to test the blond's patience, you decided you'd better catch up. As soon as you took a step however, your stomach decided to remind you that it did still exist.

**Grrrrrrrrrllllllll...**

'Running on an empty stomach,' you thought miserably, 'Such a great way to deal with not eating breakfast.'

"Eh? Rai-san," Yukimitsu asked, coming up to you, "You're hungry?"

"I didn't get a chance to eat since the devil broke into my house and all but kidnapped me," you explained, glaring at the back of said devil's head as he shouted something like "Last one to the fucking bus stop will be penalized..." **DONDONDONDONDON! **"Ya-ha!"

"Heheh, here." Yukimitsu held his hand out to you and, upon inspection, revealed a trail mix snack bar. Seeing it, your face practically screamed 'OMG food!'

"I can have it?"

"Sure!"

"Thank you!" Happily you opened the snack and munched on its chewy trail-mix goodness while running with the others. Poor Kurita, of course, was lagging behind considerably. 'Poor guy; he'll be doing the penalty for sure. Unless the Huh Huh Bros actually show up.'

**DONDONDONDONDON!**

"What the-?"

"Who told you you could fucking eat, Damn Cat?"

"I don't need your permission to do anything you overbearing, burglarizing prick!"

You had to jump to avoid the next round of bullets, aimed at your feet. You retaliated by picking up a rock and throwing at Hiruma, who, sadly, dodged. He fired more bullets in your direction, causing you to chase after him firing more rocks and retaliations to his insults. Thus was the journey to the bus stop, leaving the rest of the group questioning your sanity and self-preservation skills. **End Ch. 23**


	26. Chapter 24

Okay, guys, here's the next chapter! I've noticed recently that the chapters are shorter than they were in the beginning, and I think this is due to me having a busier schedule than I did back then, consequently reducing my writing time.

Also, unless MystryMeat contacts me to say they are still around, I am looking for a new plot beta. I had tried sending you the last chapter, MystryMeat, but for some reason your email address is dead! So please contact me if you're still around 'cause you were a great beta!

* * *

If there was one thing you were glad for when you left the campus, it was that it was Friday. Meaning no school for the next two days. Meaning no practice for you to participate in. 'Also meaning more time for me to find another frigging job,' you thought dully, dead-panning slightly.

"What's going through that rattled head of yours, Damn Cat?"

"Why do you keep following me?" you demanded, glaring at a certain blond quarterback that had taken it upon himself to "escort" you to a destination that you yourself hadn't determined yet. 'He'd probably be stalking me like a creeper if he thought he could get away with it.' "And my head's fine now, thank you very much."

"Be grateful it's so hard, then."

"...You're an ass, you know that?"

"Kekekeke!"

You stayed silent. There was no use trying to win with him, and you honestly didn't see any real reason to try since it wasn't really important.

"Where the hell are you going, anyway?"

You decided that it was time to screw with him a little. "Somewhere."

"Somewhere?"

"Somewhere."

Annoyed, he rephrased. "Where _specifically _are you going?"

"No-where."

"You're going no-where?"

"Pretty much."

"..." **Smack!**

"Ow!"

"Knock it off!"

"You're an ass-hole!"

"You're a fucking idiot!"

"Burglarizing, domineering prick!"

"Masochistic, brain-dead cat!"

~~Some time later...~~

"Where are we?" you blurted suddenly as you were about to shout some sort of insult at Hiruma. You stopped walking, looking around for anything that might give you a clue. Hiruma looked at you and dead-panned a little.

"You really suck at navigating new areas."

"Duh. I noticed," you replied, sending him a small glare. You knew he was very much amused by your lack in navigational skills; even though you tried not to pry into his and the others' feelings, closing off your empathy was easier said than done. That, and you knew Hiruma well enough to know better than to think otherwise anyway. "Are we still in the same town?"

"Yeah," he replied, taking a quick glance around. Doing the same, you noticed that the two of you had wandered into somewhat of a shopping district. There were clothing stores, knick-knack shops, and...

**Grrrrrrrrrrlll...**

...Restaurants.

"Huh, that's weird," Hiruma muttered, looking toward the street.

"What is?" you asked.

"I could've sworn I heard a motorcycle go by just now!"

Eyebrow twitching in annoyance, you growled, "Excuse me for not having eaten anything except a fricking granola bar today." Unconsciously you raised your hand to rest on your side, which was hurting a little more than usual due to you yelling at Hiruma. Of course, he noticed and raised an eyebrow, blowing a gum bubble. "Yeah, I know, few weeks like this." You turned away from the quarterback and proceeded to walk down the street.

"Oi! Where the hell're you going?"

"I'm _going _to find something to eat. Not that it's really any of your business."

Hiruma smirked. "You're going the wrong way, dumb-ass; you're headed for the business district."

You stopped and turned toward him. You knew he wasn't lying because there weren't any major vibes of mischief coming from him. "Thanks," you sighed, and turned around to start walking toward the shopping district, where food kiosks would inevitably be found. Suddenly you felt him grab your forearm, and you looked up sharply. He looked back at you and said, "Come on," before tugging you along for a couple seconds, then letting go. You followed, and shortly found yourself entering a small restaurant. You decided to stay silent about this interesting (and to you somewhat suspicious) development and sat down across from Hiruma at a booth near the back. After a couple minutes of silence, you finally asked, "Why here?"

For once, he didn't give some snarky reply to your question. Not even a smirk, actually. Not breaking eye contact with you, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his lethal weapon; the Devil's Handbook. Immediately, your face darkened and you instinctively brought out your stoic mask. He removed a piece of paper from the book, one that you assumed wasn't a part of the book because it was simply tucked into it. He tossed it to you and you caught it effortlessly before unfolding and reading it. Put shortly, they were notes. Notes that included what school you were in during your kindergarten year, some names of your kindergarten classmates, and details on the incident about Chiori, one of your classmates' dog.

'No... The one thing I didn't want him to find!' You crushed the paper in your hand and threw it back at him. He dodged it, of course. "So," you started, your voice as stoic and emotionless as your face. You wouldn't let him see anything that he'd interpret as weakness. "This is the new dirt you've dug up on me."

"No," he replied. Your eyes widened slightly. "That old classmate of yours seems to think you had something to do with her dog's death."

You clenched your jaw. "I'd never kill an animal! How could you think..."

"I don't. A fucking six year-old plotting the death of her classmate's pet and actually pulling it off? Che, not likely, especially for someone like you."

You decided to play dumb. "Then what are you getting at?"

"The fact that you knew the accident would happen two days before hand is one hell of a coincidence. Also, I've been talkin' to your coach."

You struggled to maintain your composure now.

"Putting what I got him to tell me together with that dog story, several other "interesting events" in your childhood, and what I've observed, and the only fucking thing I could come up with was pretty damn far-fetched."

Your emotions were getting in the way of your empathetic ability; you couldn't tell what Hiruma's intentions were at this point. "Why are you telling me this?"

It was then that he smirked. "Wanted to get a fucking confirmation from the most reliable source. You're actually a fucking psychic?"

You scowled. "I'm not proud of it, Hiruma." At that point the waiter came by and fearfully asked for your orders. You didn't reply, and weren't paying attention to what Hiruma said until the guy left.

"So what exactly are your abilities?"

It was at this point you were truly grateful for the privacy offered at the restaurant that would've been lost at a kiosk, and you knew better than to lie to Hiruma now. "I'm extremely empathetic, and sometimes I... catch glimpses of the future."

He continued. "This explains a whole hell of a fucking lot. You _knew _you'd lose that last fight, didn't you?"

You knew where he was going with his question. Knew that he had already figured out what your answer would be and the explanation behind it.

"Yes."

And you weren't training your ass off in the hopes of winning."

"No." No, you hadn't expected to win; hadn't even hoped to win. That training was only to get as strong as possible so that you'd take less of a beating. Of course, Hiruma knew this. You could see the anger in his eyes and facial expression.

'Odd,' you thought, puzzled, 'For as angry as he looks, I'm not sensing a lot of it.'

"Why didn't you just quit then?"

You frowned and replied, "My pride. I knew I had been set up and had no hope of winning. I knew I'd be better of just ducking out while I could. But I'd feel like a damn coward doing it that way, so I decided that if I was going to go out one way or the other, I'd go out putting up a fight and giving them as much hell as I could."

He looked at you for another moment before blinking and turning away.

"Che."

* * *

Somehow I find myself worrying about whether or not I got Hiruma in-character. I hope I did.**  
**


	27. Chapter 25

Hey, lookie here, an early update! Don't expect these, 'cause I didn't...

Anyway, thanks for the reviews, favorites, and alerts guys! I love feedback.

**Hey, I'm thinking of making another Rai interview thingy 'cause I just read the first one and it made me giggle. Please, send any questions you want to ask Rai!**

* * *

The rest of the time spent in the restaurant was fairly uneventful. Hiruma didn't press Rai on the subject of her unusual abilities, and she seemed relieved by it. He still found it difficult to read her at times, but he was starting to get the hang of it. The waiter had come again and hastily dropped off what Hiruma had ordered while Rai was spacing out. As the plate was set in front of her, she looked down at it, dead-panned, and asked, "Should I even bother asking you what the hell this is about?"

The blond smiled. "I just told him to bring whatever he'd feed a cat," he replied.

On the table in front of the black-haired girl sat a plate piled with sashimi.

"You're a real pain in the ass, you know that, right?" she spat, before picking up her chopsticks and beginning to eat. Hiruma watched her, somewhat surprised. People ate sashimi on sushi usually, sometimes by itself, but both occasions only called for a little bit of it. Either Rai was really hungry, or his nickname for her suited her more than he had initially thought.

'Probably both,' he thought, grinning wickedly.

'This guy...' She brooded, eating the sashimi that was on her plate. Rai liked sashimi, but there seriously had to be at least 8 ounces of it; that was a hell of a lot more than what normal people ate in one sitting!

"So," she started, glaring at Hiruma, "The match between you guys and the Sphinxes was a tie. Who's going up against the Americans?"

"We are," he replied, pleased, "Fucking captain said we would've won if they didn't have the weather advantage."

"Hm," she replied simply, looking apathetic. Hiruma knew better; she cared enough to ask, so she cared. Rai looked up at him as he continued to watch her, and thought of something. She thought of how she would get revenge on Hiruma for all the crap he'd put her through today. Betraying nothing in her facial features, she pushed the now empty plate away from her and stood. Hiruma watched as she headed toward the restrooms and was brought back to the phone conversation he had had with her coach the day before.

_Hiruma dialed the number he had stolen from Rai's cell phone on the train._

_"Hello?" a man said after the second ring, "Who is this?"_

_"Kekekeke! The fucking geezer? Go figure that'd be the only damn number she'd have on her phone."_

_A pause. "You're that Hiruma boy, aren't you?" Coach inquired, recognizing the voice immediately, "How is Rai doing?"_

_Hiruma raised an eyebrow. "She doesn't talk to you?"_

_"She lies, Boy, you should know that. Doesn't want anyone to worry; doesn't want to draw attention to herself."_

_Hiruma couldn't help but agree with the man on that one. "She's fine. How fucking long are her ribs going to be like that, anyway?"_

_"A few weeks," the man replied gravely, "Although knowing her, she'll probably be able to completely mask it from anyone by the end of the week, if she hasn't already."_

_'Yeah,' Hiruma thought, frowning, 'She's pretty much got it down already.'_

_"Boy." Hiruma twitched at the nickname. "You called me for a reason."_

_"What do you know about her?" the quarterback demanded._

_Rai's coach paused, then asked, "What have you discovered already, Boy?"_

_Hiruma gave the man a short version of what he'd uncovered and of what Rai had told him._

_"So she's opening up to you, eh?" her coach laughed, "That's good. But you already know of her abilities, then."_

_"Yeah."_

_"Then there's nothing else I'll tell you, Boy. You'll have to ask her yourself; it ain't my place to talk about anything else."_

_"Don't fuck with me, geezer!" Hiruma started angrily, but was then interrupted. _

_"I know, you've got all the dirt on me written in that book o' yours. I know you're looking for blackmail on Rai, and I won't be a source of it. I won't cause her any more pain than what she's already gone through. She told you fo when she lived with her mother -which I myself hadn't even known-, of when she lived on the streets, and of when she was under the wing of her previous trainer." The coach's voice darkened. "But I know that man, Boy, and you have no idea the hell he'd have put that girl through, and you've no idea what kind of fierce fighting machine she became because of it. You only saw a glimpse of her former self when she fought that brute in her last fight. She's suffered greatly, and I won't betray her and add to that." then the man changed the subject, "By the way, has she found another job yet?"_

_"No," Hiruma replied._

_Coach sighed. "I hope she does soon. She's finally getting some life in her eyes, I'd hate for her to be thrown backward now. I can't talk much longer, Boy. Just watch over her. Don't let her fall back into the pit she worked so hard to climb out of. She's one of the strongest people you'll ever meet, brave, determined, and stubborn as hell, but... at the same time, she's so fragile. She takes everything on by herself, Boy, and leaves no room for anyone to stand by her. She's afraid to trust, afraid to be hurt again."_

_"Why the fucking hell are you telling me all this shit again?"_

_"Because," Rai's former coach said, and Hiruma could hear the smile in his voice, "You're the closest person she has to a friend."_

_"...That's pretty fucking sad, you know that?"_

_Laughter on the other end of the line. Then, "Just watch over her, Hiruma. Like I said, she will take everything onto her shoulders, get in over her head, and start to drown, and still refuse to ask for help. I'm afraid she may be reaching that point now."_

_Then the line was dead. Silence. _

_'What the fuck was that? I didn't get jack shit out of him!' the quarterback thought angrily, fuming about having nothng to add to his Devil's Handbook._

Hiruma looked around, having come out of his flashback moment and realized something; Rai still wasn't back yet. The teen glowered and took out his phone.

_Where the fuck are you? _

Rai took out her phone as she sat underneath the window to the girls' bathroom. She had a text from an unknown number. Reading it, she smirked and sent a reply.

_:)_

Hiruma's glower transformed into a full-blown glare of rage, complete with aura of doom, as he read the simple reply and knew what had happened. 'That fucking bitch!'

He stood quickly and stormed out the door, sharply turning to his right and rounding the corner leading to an alleyway that connected with the outer walls of the restrooms.

You heard the door to the restaurant slam open and you smiled evilly. The window to the restroom had been small and high up from the floor; squeezing through it on a normal day would've been a hassle, but with a fresh set of bruised ribs it was just a bitch, so you were sitting up against the wall resting. Hiruma stormed around the corner and marched toward you.

'He's really pissed,' you thought happily.

"What the fucking hell was that about you damn cat?" he shouted, standing in front of you.

"Remember breaking into my apartment this morning? Remember not letting me eat breakfast, making me run, and just generally pissing me off all the time? Payback's a bitch. Hope all that sashimi wasn't too expensive."

"Yeah," Hiruma replied, a grin of his own showing, "Since you're on a budget and all."

Silence.

"You ate and ran?" you shouted, trying to hide your flinch from the pain you caused yourself. "That's illegal!"

"Pot calling the fucking kettle black, Damn Cat!" he shouted back. He didn't miss your cringe, though. "You ran out first!"

"Damn it," you muttered, not even bothering to resume that argument. You started to get up to go pay the bill -your revenge having been ruined- but you were unable to; squeezing yourself out that tiny window hadn't exactly been the best of ideas for someone recovering from a bruised ribcage, and you fell the couple of inches you'd managed to pull yourself up. You hissed angrily. 'Damn it, this is pathetic!' Briefly, you wondered why your pain tolerance seemed to be so low, then you realized your most painful experiences had been while you were fighting. The adrenaline rush and change in mind-set were most probably the contributing factors to the higher pain tolerance. 'Guess I'll have to learn to suck it up outside of the ring now,' you thought, frowning. Then you looked up at Hiruma, fishing your wallet out of your pocket. After taking your bank card out of it, you tossed it to Hiruma. "Here, there's enough in there to cover it. And please don't give me any crap about it right now; you can rub it in my face later."

He stared at you for a moment then turned and started walking toward the restaurant. A couple minutes later, he returned and tossed your wallet back. "I left the rest in the tip jar," he said, throwing a wadded-up receipt at you. You caught it and stuffed it into your pocket. It was at that point that Hiruma surprised you by sitting down beside you, staring ahead at the adjacent wall as you had been doing.

"You're stronger than you give yourself credit for," he stated suddenly, still not looking at you. You turned to stare at the wall as well, not really believing him and wondering why he would bother saying it in the first place.

"By the way," you started, changing the subject and looking at him curiously, "When did you know I hadn't planned on winning that fight?"

He looked at you. "When I saw how you were training. You're strong, but it's fucking obvious you're a speed-oriented fighter. You were trained to use your cunning, flexibility, and agility to take someone down, so suddenly switching to brute force was suspicious." He smirked. "I thought your were fucking stupid at first, until I saw the behemoth you were up against."

You smirked, but didn't reply.

"You know, you're gonna get sick if you keep breathing like that."

Startled, you turned to him. "I was doing it again?"

"Yeah."

You sighed. "Those two, Sena and Monta, are a lot more observant than I gave them credit for." You paused. "Maybe I'll just tell them. They don't need to know how, but at least I won't have them worrying about it."

"Kekekeke! Tell 'em you fell down some stairs!"

You raised your left hand and smacked Hiruma in the shoulder; he was sitting too close to get a good punch in. "I'm not a klutz! That wouldn't be believable at all!"

"It would if you said it was because of that dumb-ass cat of yours!"

"Don't insult my cat!"

~Time lapse~

"Oh! Arakaki-chan!" You and Hiruma turned; the two of you were back at your apartment building and were just about to go inside.

"Landlady?" you asked, somewhat surprised. "What is it?"

She stopped and, noticing Hiruma, paled a bit, but continued. "I...I just wanted to deliver this to your and your parents' apartment," Hiruma quirked an eyebrow at this, but remained silent. "I was just heading up there to attach these to the doors, but since you're here..." She rifled through a stack of envelopes and pulled one out, handing it to you. "Please have your parents read it as soon as they can, or tell them about it on the phone. Have a nice evening!" With that, she (hurriedly) walked back to her building. You noted she still held the envelopes meant for the other tenants. You opened the door and walked inside, followed by Hiruma. When the two of you reached the stairs, you paused and looked up to the top in dread; you just HAD to live on the third floor.

"She thinks you live with your fucking parents?" Hiruma asked, keeping pace with you as you slowly made your way up the stairs from Hell.

"Unlike you," you replied, voice strained, "I can't blackmail people into letting me get away with things. I have to lie; it's easier having people think my life is normal." Having conquered the first flight, the second set of stairs loomed in front of you as you rounded the corner and you sighed. It seemed like a long way up.

* * *

Just as a note, sashimi is thinly sliced, raw fish. Like the stuff on sushi. Also I am officially looking for a new beta reader! Remember, beta's get early previews! Please PM me if you're interested. Must have decent grammatical skills, and helping me keep the time in the plot straight would help a lot...


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